4 ms·

There are what 300 M people in the US today? This is 9 B Sq Ft or 300 + sq miles of burial space, about 12x the size of Manhattan, every 100 years or so… We sh

There are what 300 M people in the US today? This is 9 B Sq Ft or 300 + sq miles of burial space, about 12x the size of Manhattan, every 100 years or so… We shouldn’t be thinking about burying people, or doing so in a sustainable way

brandonmenc 5y ago
The rate of cremation has been skyrocketing and is currently over 50%. The problem is solving itself. https://www.statista.com/statistics/251702/cremation-rate-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/251702/cremation-rate-in...
- munificent 5y ago
  I've noticed this too. My hunch is that it's a consequence of greater mobility. Getting buried in a cemetary has much less appeal when it's either in a town you haven't been to since you moved away decades ago, or in some city you moved to as an adult and where none of your family live or are likely to visit. When cemetaries have no real sense of meaningful permanence to people, there's no point in leaving your body in one.
  - Gustomaximus 5y ago
    This but also I would assume cost. Increased urbanisation means grave sites near where people live (so they can visit) are expensive.
  - brandonmenc 5y ago
    > My hunch is that it's a consequence of greater mobility. Most people nowadays just think it's creepy to be mummified. I think your point is also relevant, but less so.
    - munificent 5y ago
      I mean, it's creepy to be incinerated too.
kragen 5y ago
Hmm, in modern units 9 billion square feet is 840 million square meters. Wikipedia says the US is 9.8 million square kilometers. By your numbers, then, the USAns would run out of space to bury their dead in 1.2 million years if they were perfectly preserved. I might be misinterpreting, but it sounds like you're saying that not only shouldn't we bury dead people, we shouldn't even contemplate burying them, or we should contemplate burying them in a sustainable way. (Your writing also admits the interpretation that we should bury people without thinking about it.) But I think your numbers clearly show that burying people in the US is sustainable at its current population. If there were 30 billion people in the US they'd run out of space sooner, in only 12,000 years, which is maybe near enough to be concerned about whether the cadavers would degrade fast enough. Even then, though, I don't see this as a serious problem.
- digitcatphd 5y ago
  It’s not a matter of running out of land, it’s considering this land could be otherwise used as a productive asset for agriculture, industry, or environmental preservation…
  - kragen 5y ago
    There's no particular difficulty in planting corn, sputtering wafers, or conserving native grasslands on top of coffins, but even if there were, your numbers show that it would take 12000 years for coffins to reduce by 1% the land available to be "used as a productive asset for agriculture, industry, or environmental preservation".
mmmBacon 5y ago
The total number of humans who have ever lived is estimated to be north of 100B (this number blows me away). I’m guessing that a significant fraction of the 100B have been buried and it seems to be fine. https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-earth/ https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived...

brandonmenc 5y ago

The rate of cremation has been skyrocketing and is currently over 50%. The problem is solving itself. https://www.statista.com/statistics/251702/cremation-rate-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/251702/cremation-rate-in...

munificent 5y ago
I've noticed this too. My hunch is that it's a consequence of greater mobility. Getting buried in a cemetary has much less appeal when it's either in a town you haven't been to since you moved away decades ago, or in some city you moved to as an adult and where none of your family live or are likely to visit. When cemetaries have no real sense of meaningful permanence to people, there's no point in leaving your body in one.
- Gustomaximus 5y ago
  This but also I would assume cost. Increased urbanisation means grave sites near where people live (so they can visit) are expensive.
- brandonmenc 5y ago
  > My hunch is that it's a consequence of greater mobility. Most people nowadays just think it's creepy to be mummified. I think your point is also relevant, but less so.
  - munificent 5y ago
    I mean, it's creepy to be incinerated too.

kragen 5y ago

Hmm, in modern units 9 billion square feet is 840 million square meters. Wikipedia says the US is 9.8 million square kilometers. By your numbers, then, the USAns would run out of space to bury their dead in 1.2 million years if they were perfectly preserved. I might be misinterpreting, but it sounds like you're saying that not only shouldn't we bury dead people, we shouldn't even contemplate burying them, or we should contemplate burying them in a sustainable way. (Your writing also admits the interpretation that we should bury people without thinking about it.) But I think your numbers clearly show that burying people in the US is sustainable at its current population. If there were 30 billion people in the US they'd run out of space sooner, in only 12,000 years, which is maybe near enough to be concerned about whether the cadavers would degrade fast enough. Even then, though, I don't see this as a serious problem.

digitcatphd 5y ago
It’s not a matter of running out of land, it’s considering this land could be otherwise used as a productive asset for agriculture, industry, or environmental preservation…
- kragen 5y ago
  There's no particular difficulty in planting corn, sputtering wafers, or conserving native grasslands on top of coffins, but even if there were, your numbers show that it would take 12000 years for coffins to reduce by 1% the land available to be "used as a productive asset for agriculture, industry, or environmental preservation".

mmmBacon 5y ago

The total number of humans who have ever lived is estimated to be north of 100B (this number blows me away). I’m guessing that a significant fraction of the 100B have been buried and it seems to be fine. https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-earth/ https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived...