Jeffrey Pettis says while honeybees are a concern because they pollinate crops, the wild plants that rely on native pollinators can be in trouble as well. (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)
Honeybees have been dying by the millions because of colony collapse disorder. But government officials say it’s not just the bees that are in trouble. Lester Graham reports.
Transcript
Honeybees have been dying by the millions because of colony collapse disorder. But government officials say it’s not just the bees that are in trouble. Lester Graham reports.
Jeffrey Pettis heads up the USDA’s bee lab in Beltsville, Maryland. He says there’s a lot of concern about honey bees because they pollinate crops. But he’s also really concerned about wild native bees, butterflies, bats that pollinate plants in the wild.
“The wild plants that rely on native pollinators can be in trouble as well. So, there’s certainly should be concern for all pollinators in addition to honeybees, which I like to think of as a major agricultural pollinator.”
Pettis says habitat destruction is hitting nature’s wild pollinators hard, but bats are also dying because of white-nose syndrome, a fungus that’s spreading, killing bats by the millions.
Vultures can eat 20% of their own body weight in one sitting. And they have digestive systems with special acids that will dissolve toxic bacteria and viruses.
(Photo courtesy of the National Park Service)
For most people, the slow spiral
of airborne vultures means that
some unlucky animal has died. Now,
in some regions of the world, vulture
populations are dying. An American
scientist is part of an international
effort to save these massive scavengers.
Ann Murray has the story:
Transcript
For most people, the slow spiral
of airborne vultures means that
some unlucky animal has died. Now,
in some regions of the world, vulture
populations are dying. An American
scientist is part of an international
effort to save these massive scavengers.
Ann Murray has the story:
It’s hard to get too excited about an ugly bird that eats dead, rotting flesh. Let’s face it, vultures don’t have a good rep. But vultures are amazing animals. They can eat 20% of their own body weight in one sitting. And they have digestive systems with special acids that will dissolve toxic bacteria and viruses. Meaning, vultures prevent the spread of killer diseases like rabies and anthrax when they scarf down the carcasses of sick animals.
“With the meat goes the disease.”
That’s Todd Katzner, Director of Conservation and Field Research at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. Katzner says, sadly, with all the good vultures do, many species are in big trouble.
“Vultures are in dire conservation straits in much of the world because of things like habitat loss, poisoning and now these new problems like diclofenac.”
Diclofenac is a medicine given to sick livestock in central Asia. Vultures that eat livestock carcasses with traces of the drug almost always die of immediate kidney failure. It took scientists some time to figure that out. Katzner’s friend Vibhu Prakash, an Indian ornithologist, recognized the beginnings of this vulture die-off.
“This was almost 20 years ago that Vibhu started seeing vultures near Barrackpore, India. They were sitting in a tree with their heads hanging down .Eventually they’d just fall out of the tree and die on the ground.”
Since then, Indian white-backed vulture numbers have plummeted from 30 or 40 million birds to just thousands. This massive decline has left scientists scratching their heads about how many vultures are left in central and south Asia and other parts of the world. Because vultures move around a lot, it’s been hard to keep track of individuals. There’s never been an accurate total population count – anywhere. That’s where Katzner and the National Aviary come in.
For several years, Katzner and his field team have been traveling to mountainous grazing lands in Kazakhstan and the northern plains in Cambodia . Katzner says the one place vultures reliably congregate is at feeding sites.
“We ask people if any livestock have died .We drive up to those sites . Usually the vultures have been there. When vultures feed on the carcass they leave feathers everywhere. And when we go to the carcass, we’re able to pick up sometimes 500 or 1000 feathers.”
Once the feathers are collected, Katzner’s team extracts DNA from them to identify individual birds. The scientists will use this information to create population models. This new counting method is faster and more reliable than capturing, marking and recapturing birds.
Katzner expects researchers will use his feather- based system to count endangered vultures in other places. That includes here, in the United States, where California Condors are dying from lead poisoning.
(sound of a vulture eating)
Before I leave the Aviary, Katzner points out an American black vulture. She’s gobbling a breakfast of chick pieces and mice. Katzner hopes his work will help to keep other vultures happy and hungry. He says we all need ‘em on the job as nature’s cleanup crew.
Biologist Tobi Kiesewalter takes out a black rat snake at the visitor's center at Murphy's Point Provincial Park in Ontario. (Photo by Karen Kelly)
Black rat snakes often grow to 6 feet long - which is why many people become frightened when they see the snakes and kill them. (Photo courtesy of Murphy's Point Provincial Park)
As kids, many of us come to see
snakes as frightening, evil creatures.
In some places, that ingrained fear
has taken a toll on the snake population.
Karen Kelly met up with some folks
who are trying to improve one snake’s
image – before it disappears:
Transcript
As kids, many of us come to see
snakes as frightening, evil creatures.
In some places, that ingrained fear
has taken a toll on the snake population.
Karen Kelly met up with some folks
who are trying to improve one snake’s
image – before it disappears:
(sound of truck, bumping on a road)
George Sheffield drives his truck along the dirt path that leads to his family’s
vacation cottage. He keeps an eye out for long, black snakes.
“It might be a good day to see a snake. It was cold last night so they’ll be
looking for sun today to heat back up.”
Sheffield’s land is one of the few places where black rat snakes still thrive in
Ontario. They’re a threatened species here, partly because people have moved
into their habitat.
But also, because they’re often six feet long, so people get scared and kill them.
The black rat snake is the longest snake in Canada. It’s not poisonous, but it’s a
constrictor that eats small animals.
(sound of walking towards cottage)
Once we’re at Sheffield ‘s camp, he checks out one of the snakes’ favorite spots
– the roof of his cottage.
“The one time, there 3 or 4 out on the roof, with portions of others, with their
heads or tails sticking out of soffits. So they do inhabit the cottage. I wish they
didn’t, but until I fix it, I can’t blame them.”
Sheffield is one of a growing number of landowners who are trying to protect
the black rat snake. They’re putting up nesting boxes in fields and wooded
areas to give the snakes a warm and safe place to spend the winter.
But the biggest challenge is just convincing people not to kill them.
Kiesewalter: “Do you want to hold the snake?”
Children: “He’s pretty heavy.” “He feels kind of like rubber.”
Tobi Kiesewalter is a biologist at Murphy’s Point Provincial Park in
southeastern Ontario. It’s used by as many as 500 black rat snakes – as well as
a lot of campers, swimmers, and boaters.
It’s a perfect chance to teach people about the snake. So every day, Kiesewalter
takes a rat snake out of a cage in the visitor’s centre and tries to persuade people
to leave them alone.
“I hear about it all the time, people coming and telling us about how their dad
had killed snakes before. Kids will tell you anything. And, as with many
reptiles, the loss of even one mature adult can cause a dip in population because
we know they’re only reproducing every two years.”
There’s a lot of effort to help this snake. Culverts are dug under highways to
give them a safe route back and forth. There are road signs that say, “Please
brake for snakes.” There’s even an adopt-a-snake program.
But the fact is, the black rat snake isn’t in danger in other parts of North
America. So why save it here?
For George Sheffield, the answer is simple.
“I grew up with them here, I think it would be a shame if man’s activities
caused the end of another species in another area. We’ve already done way too
much to degrade the environment and the number of species, so anything
anybody can do is good.”
Shrimpers have seen their catches dwindle down from thousands of pounds of shrimp a day to very little due to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo by Samara Freemark)
Of course, the bigger the zone, the further out shrimpers have to send their boats. That means a lot of wasted time, fuel, and wages. (Photo by Samara Freemark)
Every summer, thousands of
square miles of the Gulf of
Mexico die. The Dead Zone is
caused by pollution that flows
down the Mississippi River. It’s
runoff from factories, sewer
plants, and farms. And it causes
a lot of problems for fishermen
in the area. This year, the Dead
Zone is projected to be huge –
maybe the largest ever. Samara Freemark explains:
Transcript
Every summer, thousands of
square miles of the Gulf of
Mexico die. The Dead Zone is
caused by pollution that flows
down the Mississippi River. It’s
runoff from factories, sewer
plants, and farms. And it causes
a lot of problems for fishermen
in the area. This year, the Dead
Zone is projected to be huge –
maybe the largest ever. Samara Freemark explains:
Imagine for a moment you’re a shrimp fisherman. Every day you send out your fleet to the same waters you’ve fished for decades. And your boats pull in a lot of shrimp- thousands of pounds a day, millions a year. And then one day, a normal summer day, you send the boats out, and they come back empty.
“You go from about 5000 pounds to nothing. It’s dead. That’s why they call it the dead zone.”
That’s Dean Blanchard. He runs the largest shrimp company in America- Dean Blanchard Seafood.
Blanchard started seeing the dead zone about five years ago, but it’s not a new phenomenon. For a long time, nutrient fertilizer from upstream has run into the Mississippi River and from there, into the Gulf. It fertilizes big algae blooms– and when the algae decays, it sucks oxygen out of the water, making it impossible for fish to live there.
What’s new is how much fertilizer there is now.
“It’s not natural.”
Nancy Rabalais is a marine biologist at LUMCON. That’s Louisiana’s center for marine research. She says that over the past several decades there’s been a surge in fertilizer use in the Corn Belt states. That eventually ends up in the Gulf.
“We’re having 300 times more than we did in the 1950s. And it’s just over loaded the system.”
Rabalais predicts this year’s dead zone will be almost three times as big as it was twenty years ago – more than 8000 square miles.
Of course, the bigger the zone, the further out shrimpers like Dean Blanchard have to send their boats. That means a lot of wasted time, fuel, and wages.
And the zones might mean even bigger problems. Don Scavia is a professor at the School of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan.
“There’s a half a billion dollar shrimp industry in the gulf. And the shrimp depend on that habitat. And what we’re concerned about is that if the dead zone continues or even grows, that fishery may collapse.”
Congress is taking some measures to address the problem. Conservation programs in the Farm Bill work to reduce how much fertilizer farmers use, and how they apply it.
But there’s something else in the Farm Bill too – a lot of subsidy programs. Those pay for ethanol production. Which means more corn. Which means a lot more fertilizer.
“And what is debated every 5 years is how much funding will go into those conservation programs, relative to funding going into subsidy programs. And, by far, the subsidies win.” (laughs)
Scavia says for every $1 spent on conservation programs in the Corn Belt, $500 go to subsidizing crops.
Shrimper Dean Blanchard says he’s not sure how long he can live with that balance, especially as he watches the dead zone grow.
“How big is this thing going to get? If we kill the oceans we have problems. We have serious problems.”
But Don Scavia is hopeful. He says we know exactly how to reduce nutrient runoff – in fact, the basic programs are already in place. It’s just a matter of Congress choosing the right funding priorities.
Molly Aubuchon and Stefan Meyer survey their lawn. (Photo by Julie Grant)
There are some dead spots in the yard, but they don't want to use chemicals. (Photo by Julie Grant)
They like to keep the yard natural and free from chemicals. (Photo by Julie Grant)
Many Americans love full, lush
lawns. Fertilizers and herbicides
might help. But there’s concern
about water pollution from lawn
chemicals. Julie Grant reports
that some experts say you can use
them, just don’t over-use them:
Transcript
Many Americans love full, lush
lawns. Fertilizers and herbicides
might help. But there’s concern
about water pollution from lawn
chemicals. Julie Grant reports
that some experts say you can use
them, just don’t over-use them:
Molly Aubuchon and her husband Stefan Meyer aren’t sure
what they’re going to do. Their two little kids are running
around the yard. Stefan wants a lawn of thick, soft grass for
them to play on. But that’s not what he’s got.
Stefan: “As you can see, there’s no grass here.
I don’t know what some of this stuff is. Some kind of moss.
I think even the moss died, so now we have dead moss
that’s like yellow and brown.”
Molly: “It’s not attractive dead.”
Stefan: “No. I just think, when I’m out here cutting my grass,
I’m like, man, if I lived across the street, I’d be like, ‘hey look,
they’re cutting absolutely nothing again. They’re just running
that lawn mower over bare spots.’”
They see their neighbors, with those thick, green lawns,
spreading chemicals a few times a year. Molly and Stefan
don’t want to do that.
Molly: “Well, the fact that I’ve got kids running around here
all day. And the fact that it seeps into the water supply and
the rivers, that’s a concern to me.”
There are lots of people who are concerned about lawn
pollution. Lawns have gotten a bad wrap in some places –
because of the fertilizers and other chemicals people use on
them. In much of Canada, lawn chemicals have actually
been banned.
Lou DiGeranimo is General Manager of Water in Toronto.
He says lawn chemicals were damaging the water quality.
“People were over-fertilizing, they were using commercial
pesticides. That chemical ended up in the rivers and ended
up in the lake. We passed a bylaw that prohibited that.”
But some experts say the chemical bans in Canada are
extreme.
David Gardner is professor of turf grass at the Ohio State
University. He doesn’t think banning lawn chemical will do
anything to improve the environment.
“Based on the work that I have seen, based on the research
that has been conducted, I believe that if there is a unilateral
ban on the use of pesticides it will make absolutely no
impact on our environmental footprint.”
Gardner says compared to
other sources of pollution, like cars and over-use of
chemicals on farms, the impact of lawn care is miniscule.
Still, Gardner says people like Molly and Stefan can keep
nice lawns – without using a lot of chemicals.
He says you’ve got to cut the grass and water regularly.
He also recommends fertilizing lightly in the spring and more
heavily in the fall.
That’s what Gardner does at his house – and he uses only 6
to 8 ounces of herbicide a year.
“Putting it another way, if I were to go to a store and buy one
of those gallon jugs of ready-made herbicide, that would be
enough to last me for about 16 years.”
Gardner says the herbicide will hit its expiration date before
he has a chance to use it all.
But Molly and Stefan just aren’t sold. They don’t want to use
lawn chemicals just to appease the neighbors.
Stefan: “I just want to feel good about the way my yard
looks for my own satisfaction. I would like to cultivate some
grass that looks good, you know, with my hands.”
Besides, Stefan says, they don’t have the worst looking lawn
on the street and they’d just rather not add unnecessary
chemicals into the environment.
Stefan: “We don’t have the worst lawn on the street. Our
street is not that long. It’s only four blocks, five blocks long –
there’s a house down there and their yard looks worse than
ours.”
Nitrates and nitrites are found in a lot of foods - like bacon, hot dogs, and pepperoni - as food preservatives
(Photo by Renee Comet, courtesy of the National Cancer Institute)
A new study in the Journal of
Alzheimer’s Disease finds a strong
link between some food preservatives
and an increased risk of death from
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes.
Rebecca Williams has more:
Transcript
A new study in the Journal of
Alzheimer’s Disease finds a strong
link between some food preservatives
and an increased risk of death from
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes.
Rebecca Williams has more:
Nitrates and nitrites are found in a lot of foods we eat: bacon, hot dogs, and even cheese and beer.
The chemicals aren’t there naturally – they’re added as preservatives. And they’re also used in fertilizers.
Dr. Suzanne de la Monte is the study’s lead author.
She says they found a strong connection between higher death rates from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes and the increases in our exposures to these chemicals in our food and water since the late 1960s.
“What we’ve identified says this is certainly something I would consider very very important. Are there other things? Probably.”
She says people could be genetically predisposed to these diseases.
But she says long term exposure to nitrates and nitrites could also be playing a role in two ways: whether we get these diseases and how severe they might end up being.
One graveyard in Chicago is comprised of over 2.2
million dead at 43 cemeteries - that's a lot of land to maintain (Photo by Todd Melby)
During the past couple of centuries,
the typical graveyard hasn’t changed
much. Its central features still include
tombstones, winding paths, trees and
grass. Some critics want cemeteries to
ban tombstones, stop fertilizing, and
institute other green practices. Todd
Melby reports that traditional burial
practices die hard:
Todd Melby and Diane Richard produced a documentary on green burial called “Death’s Footprint.” You can listen to it here .
Transcript
During the past couple of centuries,
the typical graveyard hasn’t changed
much. Its central features still include
tombstones, winding paths, trees and
grass. Some critics want cemeteries to
ban tombstones, stop fertilizing, and
institute other green practices. Todd
Melby reports that traditional burial
practices die hard:
I’m in a mausoleum with Roman Szabelski. He’s the head of Catholic Cemeteries for the
Archdiocese of Chicago. He’s punching information into a computer.
Catholic grave locator: “Spell out the last name of the deceased that you are trying to
locate using the touch-screen keyboard …”
“So I’ve just keyed in my family name and I’m pushing search. Florence Szabelski is my
mother so I’m asking it to show that record to me.”
Szabelski started mowing grass at the cemeteries in 1979. Today, he presides over 2.2
million dead at 43 cemeteries. That makes Catholic Cemeteries one of the nation’s largest
graveyards.
Other than the high-tech grave locator, Szabelski says his customers prefer things the old
fashioned way.
“We come from a very conservative tradition where people want their 3 by 8, their grave,
to look like their backyard, which is perfectly manicured.”
Some people would like to change that. Advocates of something called green burial say
the perfectly manicured grass, the granite tombstones, the concrete burial vaults, the big
wooden or metal coffins, all of it, is wasteful.
Instead, they’d like to see graveyards filled with native grasses and flowers, rocks used as
grave markers, biodegradable coffins or no coffins at all.
So far, there’s not much demand for green burial.
Most people here are like Charlene and Margaret Villarreal, who are sitting near their
mother’s grave at Queen of Heaven Cemetery. Until her mother’s recent death, Margaret
Villareal had no reason to visit a cemetery.
“I’m 45 years old and nothing has brought me to the cemetery. Nothing, until she passed
away.”
The Villareals have decorated their mother’s grave with red roses, a crucifix festooned
with purple ribbons and a Chicago Cubs pennant.
On this day, they’ve come to honor their mother’s birthday.
Charlene Villarreal: “I’ve planned it since the day she died. I knew I would be here.”
(long pause)
Margaret Villarreal: “Oh get a grip. If she were here …”
Charlene Villarreal: “Sorry, Ma. It’s not as bad as it was on Mother’s Day. (Pause)
(Sniffles) I’m OK.”
They chose a traditional funeral for their mother. Her body was embalmed, which
allowed for an open casket. That casket was placed inside a concrete vault and buried. A
grave marker notes that she was a “loving wife and mother” who will always be in the
hearts of her family.
Margaret Villareal fears a green burial would have robbed her mother of the respect she
deserved.
“Here we are. We’re in the United States. That’s traditionally not how it’s done. You
might do that with animals. But as humans go there is more of a process of dignity
involved. You know, it sounds like that’s something you would do in a mass burial with
some kind of a tragedy like the Chicago fire but not something you’d do to remember
your loved one.”
Environmentalists dispute that. They say most people simply don’t know enough about
green burial to make an informed decision.
Whether that’s true or not, Roman Szabelski of Catholic Cemeteries is plowing ahead
with his plans. He’s got plenty of land on hand for tomorrow’s dead.
“We’re sitting in Queen of Heaven Cemetery right now, which is roughly about a 300-
acre site. About 100 of those acres are leased to the golf course next door. As we need the
property, the golf course will go from 18 to 9 to zero and a driving range and that
property will be used.”
When Szabelski adds up all the land Catholic Cemeteries owns, he figures it can keep
doing business as usual for the next 100 to 200 years.
Amy Weik has a will drawn up that specifies a green burial (Photo by Todd Melby)
Memorial Day is coming up. Many people still visit the graves of family and friends, maybe bring flowers. When a loved one dies, grieving prevents most of us from thinking about the environmental consequences of conventional funerals and burial. But some people are beginning to weigh the environmental costs of caskets, burial vaults and grave markers. Todd Melby reports on the green death movement:
Todd Melby and Diane Richard produced a documentary on green burial called “Death’s Footprint.” You can listen to it here .
Transcript
Memorial Day is coming up. Many people still visit the graves of family and friends,
maybe bring flowers. When a loved one dies, grieving prevents most of us from
thinking about the environmental consequences of conventional funerals and burial.
But some people are beginning to weigh the environmental costs of caskets, burial
vaults and grave markers. Todd Melby reports on the green death movement:
Amy Weik works at a bank in downtown Chicago. She’s also a big-time
environmentalist. She bikes to work, doesn’t eat meat, recycles and she composts.
“This is my worm bin. It’s a rectangular cube, which I keep my worms in that eat
my scrap vegetables. Mmm, look at that. Yum. Scrap paper, food that went bad.”
The environment is such a big part of Weik’s life, she’s not only interested in
living green.
She wants to die green.
“We’re Americans. We are wasteful and we consume. We think that we are
entitled to everything. So I’m entitled to using up this massive plot of land for the
rest of eternity. That’s ridiculous thinking. You know what I mean?”
So 11 years ago — when she was only 23 — Weik wrote her own will and shared it
with her mother.
Weik: “I can read part of it.”
Melby: “Sure, what does it say?”
Weik: “Zero products or services from funeral homes are to be utilized.”
Instead, Weik prefers her body to be chemically cremated. But that new, high-
tech process isn’t widely available yet. Her second choice is to be composted with
worms.
“If all efforts have been exhausted, but these two options are not available, please
bury me in a green burial ground, location unimportant.”
That second option leaves Weik’s mother — Linda Williams — confused.
“The second was composed with worms? When I read it today, my first reaction
was, oh my Gosh, she composts with worms in her kitchen. I hope she doesn’t
expect me to put her in the box!” (Laughs)
Weik sees lots of unnecessary waste in conventional burial practices. Caskets
constructed from wood or metal are used for a short time and then go right into
the ground. Most graveyards require the casket be placed inside a concrete burial
vault to prevent leaking, but most eventually leak anyway. Grave markers are
often made of granite. And cemeteries are usually manicured to perfection using
fertilizer and riding lawn mowers.
Green burial advocates prefer biodegradable caskets — or just a shroud — no
burial vault, no grave markers and no landscaping. They prefer natural
surroundings.
Weik is hoping to live long enough to see a cemetery in her town go green.
So far, that’s not happened.
But one organization is working on it.
“I don’t think many people really want many aspects of conventional death care. I
think they think it’s legally required.”
That’s Joe Sehee. He’s head of the Green Burial Council.
“Most Americans do not know that you can have a funeral with a viewing without
embalming. Most don’t know that you can transport a body across state lines
without having to embalm it. Most don’t know that burial vaults can be avoided,
for example, or that you can go into the grave with a shroud or nothing at all.”
The council has been busy certifying all kinds of earth-friendly death products,
but has been slow to find graveyards willing to ban concrete burial vaults and
minimize traditional landscaping.
That leaves Amy Weik wondering if she’s going to have rely on the worms in her
compost bin to dispose of her body.
Steve Dawson is an undertaker trying to give people greener options (Photo by Todd Melby)
When businesses begin offering
earth-friendly alternatives to
traditional products, it often
takes a while for those items
to catch on. The funeral industry
is no exception. Todd Melby reports
on one undertaker’s attempt at
greening death:
Todd Melby and Diane Richard produced a documentary on green burial called “Death’s Footprint.” You can listen to it here .
Transcript
When businesses begin offering
earth-friendly alternatives to
traditional products, it often
takes a while for those items
to catch on. The funeral industry
is no exception. Todd Melby reports
on one undertaker’s attempt at
greening death:
Steve Dawson is an undertaker who lives above his funeral home business.
His backyard looks like many here in suburban Chicago. It’s full of cherry
trees and apple trees and he’s got one of those round, above ground
swimming pools. Next to the pool, there’s a small building that looks like a
two-car garage.
We step inside.
“This is the crematorium. This is a cremation retort. As you can see it’s a
fairly large machine.”
That retort is a big furnace. It’s also a big part of Dawson’s business here at
Sax-Tiedeman Funeral Home.
Dawson: “We have a body that has been dropped off here for cremation. If
this is bothering you because we have a body here, I will do what I can to
get the body out of the way.”
Melby: “No, I’m fine.”
Dawson: “We’ll go back over here and get this started.”
(sound of the crematory furnace)
“That starts out the blowers, which is a purging blower, to basically clear
out anything that might be in the way there.”
After the furnace starts, it takes about two hours to finish the process. Then
Dawson takes the remains over to a machine that sifts through what’s left.
Dawson: “What we do is we go through there and sort through the
cremated remains.”
Melby: “This is actually what happens at the end, obviously.”
Dawson: “Right.”
Dawson collects all the prosthetics, those titanium knee and hip joints, in a big
can nearby. They get recycled.
That’s important to Dawson. At home, he’s a passionate recycler of soda pop
cans, newspapers and other household items.
“My family calls me the recycling Nazi because I get after them to put it all gets
put in the recyling bin.”
On the job, he tries to be green too.
Dawson knows that cremation — an option chosen by nearly 1 in 2 Americans —
has environmental downsides. Many older people have mercury dental fillings.
During cremation, that cancer-causing toxin vaporizes and goes up into the
atmosphere. Heating up the cremation furnace also eats up energy.
Dawson is also a savvy businessman. He believes more Americans are going
to want green choices, even when buying death products.
That’s why he’s embraced green burial. Sax-Tiedemann is Chicago’s first —
and so far only — green-certified funeral home. So in addition to selling
baseball-themed urns and big wooden caskets, Dawson has other choices
too.
“In this area here, we have rental caskets and up on the top, these are e-caskets,
Eco-caskets. These are made out of bamboo and these are designed to be
biodegradable.”
Although most Jews and Muslims skip embalming, the procedure is still quite
popular among Christians. Green death advocates are opposed to embalming
because of the formaldehyde used in the process. So to get certified, Dawson had
to buy a new machine.
“This is a three-body cooler. Inside a three-body cooler, this is what we use to be
able to hold remains without embalming. The temperature in the cooler is kept at
roughly 42 degrees. That’s enough to be able to slow down the decomposition
process.”
(funeral music)
A chilled body will hold for a day or so, which is usually enough time for friends
and family to gather and say good-bye. As baby boomers begin dying in big
numbers, Dawson expects more of them to choose green burial.
It is predicted that the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is the size of the state of Massachusetts (Photo courtesy of NASA)
About 40% of the continental U-S drains into the Mississippi River. It sends water – and pollution – from across the country into the Gulf of Mexico. A new study shows just who the worst offenders are. Gabriel Spitzer has the story:
Transcript
About 40% of the continental U-S drains into the Mississippi River. It sends water – and pollution – from across the country into the Gulf of Mexico. A new study shows just who the worst offenders are. Gabriel Spitzer has the story:
All the pollution creates a dead zone in the Gulf nearly the size of New Jersey.
Nitrogen and Phosphorus pour in and fertilize big algae blooms.
When that stuff decays, it sucks oxygen out of the water, and makes it impossible for most fish to live there.
US Geological Survey researchers say most of the problem comes from farm runoff, but the single biggest source is sewage from Chicago.
Albert Ettinger with the Environmental and Law Policy Center says Chicago water managers have to catch up with their neighbors.
“They’re gonna have to look at treatment systems which take nitrogen out of the water, and bring phosphorus down to one milligram per liter. It’s done in Milwaukee, it’s done in Cleveland, it’s done in Detroit.”
Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District say they haven’t had a chance to look closely at the study yet, so they don’t want to comment on it.
Jeffrey Pettis says while honeybees are a concern because they pollinate crops, the wild plants that rely on native pollinators can be in trouble as well. (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)
