Are dead people a waste of natural resources?

Question

Think about this before you answer because I know I'll hear all the emotional stuff. Burying people is going to have to stop eventually and we'll eventually dig up everyone that's ever been burried as land becomes less available. What to do with them then? Well there's cremation which would use less space but uses up a natural resource to accomplish (to burn the recently deceased and ones dug up to reclaim needed land). The fuel for the fire has to come from somewhere right?

I think the following makes perfect sense... In order to stop wasting valuable real estate on dead people that will be dug up eventually anyway (and since we can't eat them) we should compost them. Use the methane gas created by decomposition to our advantage. After all, if a family member dies we don't keep them in the house do we? No. We bury them someplace. Why? Because we loved them? I think we spend too much time and energy on the disposal of dead bodies. What's your take on this?

Answer 1

As for me, dead people are waste of natural resources. Why? It is because dead people when dumped in rivers, seas, lakes, and bays, and other water forms, bacteria from them will spread to the given waterforms....and may cause water-pollution and food poisoning. How food Poisoning? The fishes will absorb the bacteria and ate by a person.

Hope I helped. :)

Answer 2

I don't think we have the right to tell people what to do with the bodies of their loved ones. I think we need to allow people the right to chose; fortunately this right, as well as many other factors, result in a nice balance that prevents burial and cremation from becoming a serious threat to natural resources.

In places like Japan, where real estate is extremely expensive, cremation is the popular choice as it is much cheaper. In places like Canada and the United States, where land is plentiful, burial is a realistic and popular choice.  The factor of cost and population, as well as religion, provide a nice balance. In Buddhist countries, people are more likely cremated, in Judeo-Islamic-Christian countries, people are likely buried.  Cremation causes pollution and like you said, energy. However, we are lucky because not everyone is doing it everywhere in the world. Where there is lots of land, we need not worry about running out of grave sites for a very long time, and where there is little land, people are likely to cremate their loved ones rather than spending large amounts on a burial site.

Also, some places (such as some European countries) allow you to rent out plots. Once that deed expires (usually long after that persons immediate family has perished) the site is cleaned up and subsequently reused.

Therefore, to answer your question--no, I do not think they are a waste of resources. Nor a cause for concern. I would be concerned if everyone on Earth was being cremated or everyone on earth was permanently buried, but thankfully the above mentioned factors allow for a nice balance.

Answer 3

Unlike your reasoning, which does NOT make any kind of sense at all, it seems like YOU are the waste of natural resources, not the dead. What possible good can society gain from a mentality like yours? Mentalities like the one you've expressed tend to take the sanctity of human life and the honor of the dead to new lows. This is what is numbing society to accept euthansia, assisted suicide, abortion, and anything else that jeopardized the sanctity of life, or the honorable memory of the dead. Sorry, pal, you don't get my approval on this one!

Answer 4

Well Hindus are fully aware of this and burn their bodies.

Answer 5

You know, I think your correct. As my dad says, "I'd rather be cremated because my body will just take up ground space if I'm buried". It does take up lots of land and energy. And the compost idea is great. I mean, when you die, you'd be giving back to mother-earth, right?! I also agree with your opinion on real estate. I mean, eventually a house will be put on top of them! Graveyards are a waist of space and ground.

Answer 6

Have you ever seen the movie "SOYLENT GREEN" starring Charleton Heston ??   If not, rent it and you will have the best answer obtainable.

Answer 7

I hate to tell you this, but death is an emotional subject and our attitudes about death aren't going to change anytime soon.  The amount of land that is used for cemeteries is actually relatively small and it is only is really crowded countries, Europe in particular that they have a problem with cemeteries, usually plots are leased and the bones are disinterred at the end of the lease, the bones usually end-up in a mass storage vault.  The other option is to adopt is cremation as a means of body disposal, this is the accepted practice in quite a few countries and has been practiced for millennia.  Composting bodies will probably never become an accepted practice.

Answer 8

It does seem like an awful waste of money for someone who is dead. Although it's easier said than done. I mean if your mother, or father for example dropped tomorrow, you would want a nice burial for them I assume.

Answer 9

A lot of living people are a waste of natural resources...

Answer 10

look this things happen

Answer 11

I take it you've never eaten at "Appleby's..."

Answer 12

There is another way to take care of dead people. Imagine, when you're.. Grandmother, or.. Brother, or.. Grandfather died.

You don't have enough money to bury them, since it's like $10,000 dollars to bury something. Or, if you don't believe in burying someone..

You just burn them, and put your ashes in a jar in your house.

If you don't want dead people under the ground, don't complain on Yahoo! Answers.

~Holley~

Answer 13

I think I understand what you're trying to say, but burying people, in and of itself, doesn't waste resources.  Eventually, a buried body will decompose and enrich the soil around it.  Those nutrients will go into grass, plants, and bugs and remain in the ecosystem.  It's not quite composting, but natural decay.

It's the preservation process that ties up resources.  Nowadays, people are preserved using a variety of hazardous chemicals, then sealed in caskets.  Even if natural decomposers could manage to get to the body, most would be killed by the preservatives (and given enough time, those toxins would leech out of the body, poisoning the surrounding soil).

Personally, when I die, I want to be buried unpreserved in a simple pine box and have a tree planted over my grave.  That way, the resources tied up in my body could re-enter the ecosystem in a natural way.