For more information on and location of the Cobourg Union Cemetery, see ecoburials.ca.
New burial products and accessories (caskets, urns, etc)
While Barack didn’t mention it in his speech... news of natural burial reached the recent Democratic convention:
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002941299
About entrepreneurs who are reinventing the funeral business... including a Californian woman who is making biodegradeable shrouds and promession, a new technology from Sweden.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_66/s0806044892758.htm
Check out how the EcoPod (a biodegradeable casket made from paper mache) is made, and a burial ground in Brighton, England.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/03/going-green-beyond-the-gr_n_123566.html
The Natural Burial Association is looking into offering locally produced funeral products, and we hope to have more news about that soon.
Growing awareness Introducing the concept in popular magazines including Scientific American.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=eco-afterlife-green-buria&sc=DD_20080905
Funeral Director Argues That Natural Burial Is Harmful To The Environment (and the response)
http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=3339
As I have mentioned before, Mark Harris, author of Grave Matters has a really interesting blog on natural burials and related topics. In the last few posts, he talks about the costs of conventional burial (and that natural burial might not be cheaper, but certainly a better spend), about new burial grounds and how a conventional funeral home goes greener. He counts 20 green cemeteries in the US, another 20 in planning stages, and predicts another 200 to open in the next five years, including established cemeteries that will allow for green burials.
http://grave-matters.blogspot.com/
Natural Burial in Ontario
In their fall newsletter, the Natural Burial Co-operative explained that after several positive steps towards setting up a burial ground in Paisley, Ontario, zoning issues have forced them to look at other properties.
http://www.naturalburial.coop/canada/
Natural Burial Association
Our message is reaching a great variety of audiences. We were recently asked for comment on vaults from a construction magazine, from a concrete usage perspective.
http://dcnonl.com/article/id30714 (Concrete burial vaults divide traditionalists, environmentalists)
2008
Summer
Exciting news that Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia now offers a burial option for environmentally-conscious consumers.
“I’ve been looking at this for quite awhile. I noticed it has gone over big in England and a few places in the States,” explained Bill Mont, president of Pleasant Hill Cemetery. “I’m the first in Atlantic Canada to offer this, and I am pretty sure I’m the first in Canada to have officially opened this kind of cemetery.”
www.halifaxnewsnet.ca/index.cfm?sid=147216&sc=608
The cemetery itself (doesn’t yet have information about the natural burial ground)
pleasanthillcemetery.ca./index.html
June
An interview with Mark Harris, author of Grave Matters, in response to the announcement of two natural burial grounds opening up in Canada (and more to come!)
www.cbc.ca/news/goinggreen
(button for burials video on the right hand side)
The two cemeteries are in Victoria BC, and in Paisley ON (near Owen Sound):
Royal Oak Park Cemetery—a conventional cemetery opening an adjacent plot for natural burials, in the fall of ‘08.
www.robp.ca/burial.shtml
The Natural Burial Cooperative have presented the concept to the township of Arran-Elderslie council for approval.
www.naturalburial.coop/2008/04/10/natural-cemetery-proposed-for-paisley
Mark Harris also has an excellent blog. Two postings are of particular interest:
Since Mark started covering natural burial ten years ago, he has seen an amazing growth in natural burial grounds, and as he says “like prices at the gas pump, that number is headed inexorably upward.”
grave-matters.blogspot.com/2008/06/finding-green-cemetery-coming-to-you.html
No mere fad. Mark comments that on the basis of his extensive research, he believes that natural burial will not only change funeral practices, but do so faster than many advocates had thought possible.
grave-matters.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html
And natural burials aren’t just making the “environmental” news. In Australia’s fourth natural burial ground, the Sydney Morning Herald’s technology reporter writes about the GPS satellite navigation devices visitors will be given.
www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/green-reapers-grave-new-world/2008/04/19/1208629703961.html
Spring
You are welcome to attend the Funeral Information Society of Ottawa AGM on Monday June 2,
2008, at 7:30 p.m. at First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa (Fellowship Hall), 30 Cleary Ave. Ottawa, ON.
Guest speaker will be Janet McCausland, Executive Director, Natural Burial Association speaking on
Green Burial.
Progress in setting up a natural burial ground in Ontario by the Natural Burial Co-op
www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=978950&auth=Scott+Dunn
The scheduled opening of a natural burial area in Oak Park Cemetery in Victoria B.C.
www.cbc.ca/news/goinggreen/green-burials.html
There has been a lot of media about natural burial and its move to the mainstream
www.plentymag.com/features/2008/04/green_burials.php
www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20Live-a-t.html?pagewanted=2
January
Biodegradable coffins available at The Natural Burial Store
regulus2.azstarnet.com/blogs/lastwrites/7176
www.naturalburialcompany.com/product_catalog/index.html
A cartoon version of “The business of death”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9PKO5WyPpg
Executive Director Janet McCausland will be delivering a sermon about natural burials at First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto www.firstunitariantoronto.org at 10:30 am on Sunday, March 9, 2008.
We are also sad to report the death of one of our founding Directors, Mary Anne Brinckman on December 31, 2007.
www.greenlivingonline.com/OurWorld/a-fond-farewell-to-a-pioneer
2007
December
Natural burial interest in Florida
www.sptimes.com/2008/01/06/Northpinellas/The_ultimate_green_bu.shtml
November
Growing demand in the US
www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071014/LIFE/710140306/-1/LIFE
Funeral law fails ethnic groups in Toronto
www.thestar.com/News/article/271075
About the environmental costs of cremation
www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22595779-23272,00.html
observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2188558,00.html
New ideas from the UK
women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/body_and_soul/article2840254.ece
The Natural Burial Association quoted in Readers Digest, recommending how to decrease the impact of your death.
www.readersdigest.ca/mag/2007/09/dying_naturally.php
2006/2007
Interest in the natural burial movement has been growing, with media coverage including CBC Morning (TV) and CBC Radio as well as the following in print.
From the Telegraph in the UK, Rise of the funerals that leave out God The National Association of Funeral Directors estimates there are 2,000 green funerals every year and that there are now 214 natural burial grounds across Britain, compared with 52 in 1997.
From the BBC’s Towards a Carbon Neutral Death, the Natural Death Centre is predicting an increase from 6.5% to 12% of all burials in the UK by 2010.
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