21 minute read
Good Reads
by Darcy Connor
Preschool/Toddler EIEIO: How Old MacDonald Got His Farm (with a Little Help From a Hen) Written by Judy Sierra Illustrated by Matthew Myers
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Old MacDonald had a yard … wait, what? Yes, that’s true, at least according to author Judy Sierra. Before it was a farm, it was a yard he didn’t want to mow, even though he hoped for something better. So one day, with the help of Little Red Hen, an environmentally conscious fowl, Old Mac began to transform his backyard. All it took was some mud, garbage, horse poop and worms. Pretty soon Mac’s yard was an oasis of ecology with raised-bed gardens, flowers and more.
Picture Book
Our Planet! There’s No Place Like Earth
Written by Stacy McAnulty Illustrated by David Litchfield
As part of the Our Universe series, author Stacy McAnulty, who lives in Kernersville, writes Our Planet! There’s No Place Like Earth as a “celestial autobiography” bursting with interesting facts. “Hi! I’m Earth. Also known as Planet Awesome. Also known as your awesome home,” the story begins. Combining humor and wisdom, this picture book offers a sweet but important lesson on why our planet is so special, and the significance of caring for it.
Upper Elementary School Me and Marvin Gardens
Written by Amy Sarig King
Protagonist 11-year-old Obe Devlin is not having the best of times. He lives in an old house near a new development that was built on land his family used to own. He’s made it a mission to pick up litter, but with all the new homes and people, littering just keeps getting worse. His best friend has abandoned him and he keeps getting nosebleeds. To escape, Obe heads down to the creek near his home and one day he comes across a strange animal who seems to only be eating plastic. The animal, which Obe eventually befriends and names Marvin Gardens, is one of a kind, and Obe is intent on keeping him safe no matter what. When the community finds out about Marvin Gardens, Obe must make a decision that will affect everyone.
Middle School
Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers
By Celia C. Pérez
Four girls—aspiring journalist Ofelia Castillo, birdwatcher Cat Garcia, foodie Aster Douglas and artist Lane DiSanti—join forces one summer in Florida after Lane invites the others to fight social injustice. Their mission: Get the Floras, the local Scouts, to stop using an old hat made from bird feathers. Using teamwork and courage, the young girl activists are intent on raising awareness of animal rights and changing their community for the better. But will it be too daunting of a task, even for these capable girls?
Adult Flight Behavior By Barbara Kingsolver
As only Barbara Kingsolver can, weaving social justice lessons within a fictional world, Flight Behavior introduces us to the life of Dellarobia Turnbow—a 28-year-old woman living with her husband’s antagonistic family on a farm in Tennessee—and shows how fate can take a turn when she discovers that 15 million monarch butterflies have landed on her family’s property. The butterflies have veered off course from their traditional wintering home in Mexico because of pollution and climate change, and it’s unknown whether they can survive the winter. Dellarobia must face what life could have been and what could still be, as Kingsolver weaves a story of social injustice, individual choice, environmental abuse and the hypocrisy of information we are fed each day.
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Green Sustainable Options
by Robert Nason
It’s not the easiest conversation to have with your loved ones. For the majority, the topic of death, funerals and burials is best left unsaid. Death, of course, is the unavoidable fate for us all; the only question is when. And inevitably, whether it’s you or your family, what to do with your body is a question that has to be answered. Do you want to be buried in the local cemetery? Cremated with your ashes scattered at your favorite place? Do you want your coffin made of mahogany or cherry? Will it have silk lining and feather pillows?
Tradition, both religious and cultural, has guided our thoughts about post-death for centuries. Buddhists, for instance, don’t have a universal death rite but one of their more interesting versions is called the Tibetan Sky Burial, where they stake the body on a mountain to be eaten by vultures and other scavenging animals. If the body is
Burial
After Death
eaten quickly, it is a sign the person was spiritually worthy to enter the afterlife. Today, cremation, burial and water burial are all common practices in Buddhism.
Christians both cremate and bury their dead. For centuries, Roman Catholics were not allowed cremation because of the belief in the resurrection of the body, but in 1963 the Church removed the ban if the person’s choice of cremation did not reflect their lack of belief in physical resurrection. Then in 2016, the Church banned Catholics from scattering remains, requiring followers to keep the remains in a sacred space, such as a columbarium.
Indeed, resurrection is the main reason many other religions consider burial the only option, including Judaism and Islam. In 2020, the National Funeral Directors Association reported that 57.5 percent of death rites were cremations versus 36.6
Green Burial
percent burial. The average funeral cost of a traditional burial today is nearly $8,000 while a cremation funeral averages just under $7,000.
But are modern death rituals the best option for our dead? Can we keep to religious traditions and offer more sustainable methods of honoring the body? Options that respect the person’s religious rites while also helping the environment. What if bucking tradition actually provides a deeper spiritual and environmentally conscious choice for your death?
Green burial has gained traction over the past several years, particularly in response to climate change and the exorbitant cost of funerals. The Green Burial Project, a nonprofit based in North Carolina developed to educate the public about the benefits of green (or natural) burial, says the three core tenets of green burial are no embalming, no burial vaults or grave liners, and no impervious containers.
“Green burial is generally less expensive and less toxic to the environment. It also permits a more personal and natural relationship between the living and the dead, between our bodies and the land at a time of shock, grief and confusion,” says Anne Weston, founder of the nonprofit. “Green burial might not be the best choice for every family but unless you know what your choices are you can’t really say.”
It’s best to understand traditional burial practices by addressing the three tenets
from the Green Burial Project. The Egyptians were the first to embalm their dead using natural methods, including wrapping, dehydration and immersion in a sodium salt bath. Today, the accepted embalming method is using formaldehyde, an industrial disinfectant that preserves the body for funeral rites and wakes. On average, around 800,000 gallons of formaldehyde is buried each year in the U.S. from the practice of embalming. Formaldehyde is toxic and can leak vapors into the air that can cause leukemia and brain cancer (morticians have a higher rate of these cancers due to their occupational exposure to formaldehyde). Formaldehyde can also leach into the ground from buried bodies, contaminating water and destroying the soil.
There is no specific reason formaldehyde is used other than its effectiveness at body preservation after death. As one funeral home noted on their website, embalming is for cosmetic reasons only so the body looks life-like during viewing. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), no state law exists that requires embalming, and refrigeration is the encouraged method of preservation prior to burial.
Vaults or liners are sealed receptacles that are used to house the casket in the ground. Some cemeteries require them, and costs can be as high as $4,000. They can be made with metal or concrete, are expensive and offer no practical purpose for burial. Green Burial Project notes that American cemeteries bury up to 1.6 million tons of concrete each year building vaults and liners, and often it is only to the benefit of cemeteries to reduce maintenance costs. Again, the FTC reports that state laws do not require vaults or liners to be built.
Coffin options can be endless and expensive, and many choices are impervious containers like metal or unstainable woods that either never biodegrade or take decades to decompose. Green Burial Project notes that about 30 million board feet of wood is buried each year for coffins. Add
to that the upgrades offered with coffins, from plush silk bedding to storage drawers, and the cost can rise precipitously.
“Why does a dead person need a mattress? What would you put in a storage drawer that you couldn’t put in the deceased person’s hand or tuck in the side of the box?” asks Weston. “What does it say about our values to be buried in finer furniture than we ever owned in our lives? And what do these boxes mean for our return to the earth? In most cases, even without a burial vault or liner, the molecules that used to be humans remain separated from the cycle of life for as long as the box remains intact. If you have a dust to dust view of the human body, you might need a better way.”
The Green Burial Council (not to be confused with the local Green Burial Project), which works to “ensure universal access to information and environmentally sustainable death care,” defines green burial as “a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact. This aids in the conservation of natural resources, the reduction of carbon emissions, the protection of worker health, and the restoration and/or preservation of habitat.”
For those who want a green burial in a traditional setting, the process is simple. Find a certified green cemetery, one that is dedicated to following conservation best practices. There are about 10 green burial grounds in North Carolina.
“There are three general classifications,” explains Weston. “A hybrid cemetery is a cemetery that has green burials and conventional in the same cemetery. And most often these are cemeteries that have changed their bylaws, missions, regulations in the last few years to accommodate people who are asking for green.
“Then there are what are called ‘natural cemeteries’ where the entire property is a green cemetery and everybody in it is buried green. And so there would be no pesticides on the grass. Most of them would have some requirement about natural field stones or a simple bronze disc to mark graves rather than upright stones. And the third classification is conservation burial grounds that have a natural burial ground on land that has a conservation easement, so the property is also used for another specific purpose, like a park, agriculture or spiritual.”
Once you’ve decided on a burial ground, then you should request that your family bury you in a biodegradable container, such as pine or bamboo, or shroud rather than a traditional coffin. And if you would like a showing prior to burial, find a funeral home that can use refrigeration rather than embalming for preserving your body.
While the process is simple, the logistics can be challenging.
“You would think, since all we’re talking about is not embalming, not having vaults and not having an impervious container, that it wouldn’t be so hard to have a green burial. But,
Green Cemeteries in North Carolina
Bluestem Conservation Cemetery Cedar Grove bluestemcemetery.org
Carolina Memorial Sanctuary Mills River carolinamemorialsanctuary.com
Forest Lawn Memorial Park Candler forestlawnnc.com
Green Hills Cemetery Asheville greenhillscemeteryasheville.com
Highland Meadow Natural Burial Garden Fayetteville lmpnc.com
Mordecai's Meadow at Historic Oakwood Raleigh historicoakwoodcemetery.com
Pine Forest Memorial Gardens Wake Forest pineforestmemorial.com
Sanctuary at the Burrow Moncure sanctuaryattheburrow.com
Green Burial
in fact, it’s very hard,” says Weston. “There’s no law that requires any of that stuff, but funeral homes have their policies and cemeteries have their policies. And it’s really quite difficult for an average consumer who doesn’t do a lot of thinking about this to go shopping and come up with something that might be more in line with their recycling, solar power, Prius-driving ethos.”
The key, says Weston, is planning. Meaning, if green burial is important to you, do the research in advance and have the steps ready for your family when death does knock on your door.
In addition to green burial, there are some other unique post-death options to consider that are better for the environment. Wet cremation or green cremation reduces the human body to bone fragments using a process combining water, an alkali solution, heat, and pressure in a stainless steel chamber. After a few hours, the sterile solution is drained, pH balanced, and recycled through the municipal wastewater treatment system and the bone fragments are dried and pulverized. Technically called alkaline hydrolysis, this process uses less energy than a fire cremation, and does not release sulfur or carbon gases. Any mercury from dental fillings is contained and recycled. Wet cremation isn’t legal in all states, but it was approved in North Carolina in 2018.
Human composting places the body in a stainless steel vessel with wood chips, alfalfa, straw and other naturally and biodegradable materials, eventually transforming the body into soil. Called recomposition, the soil is then used to plant whatever is requested, from flower gardens to trees, or simply scattered onto the forest floor.
Another unique idea is adding cremated remains to concrete reefs that are helping restore the oceans’ reef system. These “Eternal Reefs” began about 20 years ago and are popular with people who advocate for preserving the marine environment. Then, of course, there’s donating your body to science where you can help improve the lives of others.
Whether you lean toward more traditional or alternative death rites, the options for creating a meaningful and more sustainable burial are just a few preparations away.
For more information about green burial, visit greenburialproject.org and greenburialcouncil.org.
Today you own the pieces of land but tomorrow a land will own you.
- Islamic quote
From dust you have come, to dust you shall return.
- Genesis 3:19
I want a natural burial. Just straight into the ground in a shroud.
- Caitlin Doughy, mortician, writer
For a Better Future By Greg Girard
Sustainable Sandhills, with headquarters in Fayetteville, was created in 2003 and formed from a partnership with Fort Bragg and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The seeds of the idea began in 2000 when Fort Bragg leadership started looking at the long-term sustainability of the base. Two years later, the Sustainable Fort Bragg initiative was established in order to focus on six areas of environment impact: sustainable land use, energy efficiency and conservation, water efficiency and conservation, waste management, sustainable transportation and sustainable design and construction.
It didn’t take long to realize these issues extended beyond the base’s boundaries, and so along with the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Fort Bragg connected with community stakeholders, ultimately creating Sustainable Sandhills. Its mission statement: Through education, demonstration and collaboration, Sustainable Sandhills strengthens communities by creating resilient environmental, economic and social resources for current and future generations in the Sandhills of North Carolina.
To catch up on what Sustainable Sandhills is doing for our communities, we had a chat with the current executive director, Jonelle Kimbrough.
S&P: So how did you end up leading Sustainable Sandhills?
JK: I’ve been at Sustainable Sandhills since January of 2019. Prior to that, I worked for Fort Bragg’s environmental and sustainability programs and for the U.S. Army Reserve sustainability programs. I actually worked with Sustainable Sandhills during my time at Fort Bragg, so I’d always been familiar with the organization, and always worked with them on their programs and projects.
Why did Fort Bragg take such a leading role in sustainability? How did that come about?
They were issued a Jeopardy Biological Opinion by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1991 for damaging the habitat of the red-cockaded woodpecker. It’s an endangered bird and it has been on the endangered species list since the list was created.
And so in order to maintain their training areas, which are in the middle of the woodpecker’s habitat, the base had to implement a management program to retain the habitat. So their environmental program was born out of that, with the woodpecker.
But they grew it into a much more comprehensive program when it came to sustainability. There was that environmental conservation piece, which led to the prescribed burn program, energy resiliency, water conservation, water quality and waste management transportation. So a lot of it grew just out of the need to preserve the Longleaf pine habitat.
And from that came Sustainable Sandhills. So what is Sustainable Sandhills focused on these days?
Right now we’re really pushing litter abatement, recycling education and illegal dumping abatement because once the pandemic hit a lot of the municipal programs and the state programs that were designed to help reduce litter were suspended. For example, the inmate programs where they would pick up litter along the roadside. Those just didn’t happen for a couple of years and litter just really proliferated throughout the entire region, and statewide as well.
So we’ve partnered with places like the city of
For a Better Future
Fayetteville, Keep Moore County Beautiful and the Harnett County Sheriff's department to host community cleanups. We’ve been asking for volunteers from the communities in those counties to come out and help clean up the litter in their areas. We try to do it about once a month or once every couple of months. We have a campaign called Five for Friday where we’re asking people to take ownership of just the area around their homes and businesses—pick up five pieces of litter on Fridays just to keep the litter problem down as much as we possibly can.
have some of those State and Municipal programs started back uP?
They have to an extent, but not to the level that they were. Like everything else, it’s hard to find workers. So we’ve been relying a lot on volunteers and it’s really picked up a lot of momentum since we started. When we started a year and a half ago, we would have five volunteers at a cleanup but now we have as many as 40 or 50.
And a lot of them come from local high schools. So it’s great to see our youth getting involved and really wanting to take pride in where they live. That’s really what it’s about, loving where you live and taking pride in it and wanting to see it look as good as it possibly can, because litter is a problem on so many levels.
Speaking of students, you are involved with schools as well, correct?
We have our green schools program in Cumberland County and we have someone actually embedded in the school system who helps with conservation projects, environmental education, integrating sustainability into the STEM curriculum. We do a lot to work with teachers on ensuring that their classrooms are sustainable, that the schools are recycling properly and that the students are getting hands-on opportunities to learn about our environment while trying to foster and encourage them to be more environmentally conscious and responsible. Kids are like sponges. They just absorb all that from such a young age. We’d love to get into Moore County Schools with that program, but we just haven’t had that conversation with the school system there. That’s definitely something that I have been looking at doing since I came on board.
What are some longer term, bigger picture goals of the organization?
Our goal is to make the Sandhills the most sustainable region in North Carolina. It’s going to take a lot of effort, not just from Sustainable Sandhills and the municipalities that we work with and the other organizations like Keep Moore County Beautiful. It’s going to take an effort from everyone who lives in the Sandhills. So we encourage people to incorporate sustainability practices into their daily lives as much possible. And if we all do that, we can definitely reach that goal. I think it’s doable.
How do you overcome Sustainability burnout? that numbness people start to get about sustainable practices.
That’s a great question because even people who work in the environmental field feel that way at times. Especially if we, for example, do a litter cleanup and everything looks great, everything’s pristine and then we come back six months later, and it’s full of litter again. That can be really disheartening.
All we can do is keep trying to drive the culture change. We think that’s really what it’s about, getting people into the habit. And just continuous education to ensure that people are constantly aware of what’s going on in the conservation field and how the work that we do, and the work that other community
groups do, is really having an impact. So showing them the impacts and the benefits, I think, is really important.
And then incentivizing them as much as possible. For example, our major partner in our litter cleanups in Cumberland County is the Cross Creek Early College. It’s a group of high school students who come out once a month on a Saturday morning and they work really hard to beautify their communities. So we try to get their pictures in the paper or we try to give them a thank you treat, like free milkshakes or ice cream, just to help keep them motivated. So it’s a combination of those things. Seeing the tangible impacts of people’s efforts and trying to reward them as much as possible.
what Is Sandhills MADe?
Sandhills MADE is an economic development program where we’re connecting small business owners, anyone who makes anything in the Sandhills, with a customer and client base. So we’re running a couple of popup markets right now, and then we’re eventually going to be launching a small business network where people can find these entrepreneurs online, like a business directory for folks who don’t have brick-and-mortar stores.
We’re also hoping to develop classes for underserved populations, such as low income families, women, people of color, to learn how to do what we call urban home setting skills. And those things would be anything from sewing and soap and candle making to beekeeping, things like that.
The program is in the planning stages right now, but Moore County is the hub where we want to do that because we’ve had a lot of interest from the community there. We’ve asked for donations of fabric and seed pots and things like that for the classes, and we received this huge outpouring of donations from Moore County. So we’re hoping that we can start those classes in the late summer, early fall of this year. On your website, Your definition of sustainability reads: The ability of the current generation to meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Does that work as an argument of motivation? That idea of listen, we have to meet our needs, but we also can't compromise future generations to a terrible future if we don't do it right now.
That definition of sustainability has been around since ’89 when the United Nations defined that in their Brundtland Commission Report. And it is very true, because a lot of people really live in the here and now, and they don’t think so far down the road. But now in this generation, even we’re seeing how the consequences of our actions are coming up sooner than expected—not 50 or a 100 years down the road, but 10, 20, 25 years down the road. And so we encourage sustainability now because even small things like a litter cleanup can make a huge difference the very next day. And if we keep plugging at it, as you said that becomes cumulative and hopefully those impacts will stay lasting.
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How can we get people more involved?
By taking small steps to be more conscious of their environment, whether on their local economy, their community or in their daily life. They can learn more about how to recycle right. They can learn more about ways to be stewards of public lands and conserving our wildlife on public lands. They can learn about pollution prevention. They can explore alternative forms of transportation, like taking mass transit or walking or biking more to where they need to go.
So just taking small steps— and the more small steps that they take, the greater the impact they’re going to have. Whether it’s one sustainable thing that you do on a daily basis or 10, every one of those things is going to have an impact for the greater good of both our planet and our community. And we emphasize not just environment at Sustainable Sandhills, but economy and community as well. So they could do things like shop a small business instead of a big box store. That’s going to help put money back into our neighborhoods for those entrepreneurs. It’s just going to help everyone out and improve the quality of life for everyone who lives here.
For more information on Sustainable Sandhills and to get involved, visit sustainablesandhills.org.
