An Australian scientist has called for an end to the age-old tradition of cremation, saying the practice contributes to global warming.
Professor Roger Short said people could instead choose to help the environment after death by being buried in a cardboard box under a tree.
The decomposing bodies would provide the tree with nutrients, and the tree would convert carbon dioxide into life-giving oxygen for decades, he said.
PHOTO: EPA
"The important thing is, what a shame to be cremated when you go up in a big bubble of carbon dioxide," Short said.
"Why waste all that carbon dioxide on your death?"
Short said the cremation of the average male in Australia, during which the body is heated to 850°C for 90 minutes, produced more than 50kg of carbon dioxide.
And that doesn't include the carbon cost of fuel, or the cost of the emissions released during the production and burning of the wooden casket.
Short, a reproductive biologist at the University of Melbourne, said the contribution of cremation to harmful greenhouse gases was small, and he did not wish to prevent people from choosing how their body was disposed of according to their religion.
But to bury the hatchet with environmentalists, he suggested it would not be a bad idea to bequeath one's body as food for a forest.
"You can actually do, after your death, an enormous amount of good for the planet," he said. "The more forests you plant, the better."(AFP)
澳洲一名科學家呼籲終止存在已久的火葬傳統，因為它會促進全球暖化。
羅傑?休爾特教授表示，身後事的處理反倒可以選擇置入厚紙棺內葬於樹下的環保方式。
他說，腐爛的遺體會變成樹木的肥料，而樹木可以將二氧化碳轉化為足供生物數十年所需的氧氣。
休爾特說：「重要的是，遺體火化然後汽化成一團二氧化碳實在遺憾。」
「為什麼要浪費火葬時產生的二氧化碳？」
休爾特表示，一般來說，澳洲男性遺體在經攝氏八百五十度高溫焚化九十分鐘後，會產生五十多公斤的二氧化碳。
這還不包括燃料及火化過程中燃燒木棺所產生的二氧化碳。
墨爾本大學再生生物學家休爾特表示，火葬產生的有害溫室氣體只占少量，而且他無意阻止人們依宗教信仰選擇遺體處理的方式。
但想與環境保護論者和解共生，他表示，把遺體留給森林當養分倒是不錯的主意。
他說：「人往生後，對地球確實極有貢獻。栽植的森林愈多，貢獻愈大。」
（法新社／翻譯：林倩如）
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