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GPS Used To Find Graves In Eco-Burial Sites

Posted by kdawson on from the no-plastic-flowers-please dept.

Narrative Fallacy writes "Relatives and friends will use a satellite navigation device to find graves of loved ones in Australia's eco-burial site on bushland attached to Lismore Memorial Park Cemetery, in New South Wales. Reflecting a worldwide trend towards environmentally friendly burials, the deceased will be buried in biodegradable coffins between gum trees in a protected koala sanctuary. 'It's an ideal way of utilizing land and helping wildlife and vegetation,' said Kris Whitney, Lismore Council coordinator of cemeteries. 'A family can walk around the bushland and pick a site. The body can be oriented in any direction. We promise there will be no internments within five meters. We'll record accurate GPS co-ordinates.' Families visiting graves would be lent a satellite navigation device. This will be Australia's fourth 'natural burial site' with existing sites in Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia."

8 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Composting... by thesupraman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You seem to miss the point...
    Dead bodies break down nicely and help to increase the fertility of the soil. The point is to help the trees grow.

    And I would not be surprised if this is being done in an area a touch short of such organic matter..

    Of course, if people really cared they may want to consider that GPS is rarely accurate to 5m, its not uncommon to get an EPE of 15-20m in that arts of the world..

    1. Re:Composting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      when they start running out of room

      Yeah, right. Australia is really "running out of room".
  2. rotting carcass by timmarhy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I astounds me that people buy shit like "freshness liners" for coffins, or give a crap about the softness of the coffin pillows.

    people, when you die, YOU WILL BE ROTTING MEAT. no different to that cat/dog you buried when you were 12.

    Look at it this way, no matter how much of a useless bastard you were in life, if your buried in the ground with trees around you, you'll finally be put to good use.

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
    1. Re:rotting carcass by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And your viewpoint is what makes atheists look very bad. Why?

      Religion has two major things it accomplishes: a creation myth and a death myth. Many, many people cannot grasp the idea that you will be worm food when you die. They instead seek things like Heaven, enlightenment, or Valhalla as a means to cope with what they do not understand.

      As long as these people are peaceful, let them have their beliefs, as it does not hinder what happens. And if somebody is 10% more efficent/successful/happier because of it, I see no reason to burst their bubble.

      --
    2. Re:rotting carcass by BSAtHome · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Both religious and non religious people are allowed to voice their own thoughts and ideas. Yes, let the religious have their believes, but could you then extend the courtesy to me too when I say that my believe is no believe? I am very comforted by the fact that I will be wormfood when I die. Call it my personal heaven to know that I'll be recycled by nature. I don't need religion to accomplish any comfort for either creation or death.

  3. Re:Eco?! by Yvanhoe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Eco doesn't mean technophobic. It means that it is workable for everyone on the planet to do the same in a sustainable fashion.

    --
    The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
  4. Re:Way to go to make me feel like a goldfish by vidarh · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I don't get why you find it difficult to believe. I have the same attitude.

    But I wouldn't send my body to some random stranger for the reason that it might matter to my relatives. I might not care, but if they do, then I'm not going to rob them of the possibility of having a ceremony or whatever they'd like.

    If they decide they'd be happy to let you do whatever you have in mind to my dead body, then what do I care?

    It's not like I visit the grave sites of m dead relatives - I'd rather think of them in happier terms than as a rotting corpse, so the whole obsession with funerals is really quite distasteful and alien to me.

  5. Re:Way to go to make me feel like a goldfish by ozmanjusri · · Score: 4, Insightful
    why people find their earthly shells so importnt that they should be buried in expensive coffins with huge ceremonies.

    The ceremony's not for the dead. It's for the ones left alive, so they have a sense of closure.

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."