About this item

We once disposed of our dead in earth-friendly ways - no chemicals, biodegradable containers, dust to dust. But over the last 150 years death care has become a toxic, polluting, and alienating industry in the United States.Today, people are slowly waking up to the possibility of more sustainable and less disaffecting death care, reclaiming old practices in new ways, in a new age. Greening Death traces the philosophical and historical backstory to this awakening, captures the passionate on-the-ground work of the Green Burial Movement, and explores the obstacles and other challenges getting in the way of more robust mobilization. As the movement lays claim to greener, simpler, and more cost-efficient practices, something even more promising is being offered up - a tangible way of restoring our relationship to nature.



About the Author

Suzanne Kelly

Suzanne Kelly, Ph.D. is a writer and an independent scholar whose work spans the topics of the environment, feminism, sex and death. For over a decade she was a professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies teaching courses at the intersections of the body, sex and popular culture. Co-editor of the best-selling Women: Images and Realities (McGraw Hill, 2012) , her work has appeared in a range of publications including Salon.com, Huffington Post, Alternet, The Chronicle of Higher Education, GreenBiz and Newsday. Her most recent book, Greening Death-Reclaiming Burial Practices and Restoring Our Tie to the Earth (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) looks at the burgeoning green burial movement in the U.S. arguing that beyond greener, simpler, and more cost-efficient practices lies an even greater promise - restoring our relationship to nature. A fellow green burial advocate, she chaired the committee to form the 2nd municipally operated green burial ground in New York State. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Green Burial Council's Leadership Award, recognized for her "demonstrated foresight, innovation, and extraordinary commitment to the environment through sustainability and attainability in the area of human death care practices." She writes and farms in New York's Hudson Valley.



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