Robert Barron’s article “North Cowichan looks to expand Mountain View Cemetery” in the Oct. 2 edition of the Citizen caught my attention. I am happy to hear that North Cowichan is taking time to consider how to best move forward on any plan for this property. As pointed out in this article we can expect an increase in deaths in the coming years, so, although it is not a popular topic, we must face facts on how to best deal with it.
One point that I read in this article concerns me. He states that cremations are “increasingly popular”. If he means fire-based cremations, I disagree. This may have been true in the past but currently, it is losing favour. The high amount of carbon emissions produced by each cremation is not good when we are trying to find ways of combating climate change. Heavy metals may also be released into the atmosphere. Air quality issues arising from fire-based crematoria make them an unpopular addition in any neighbourhood.
There is an alternative process which is becoming increasingly popular — that is water-based cremation, known as alkaline hydrolysis (AH) or aquamation. AH is legally available in several provinces, but not yet in B.C. There is growing advocacy for this to change. So when we see the word “cremation” we should not automatically think of a fire-based process. I urge readers to learn about AH or aquamation. We cannot afford to have business as usual in the funeral industry. We need to move away from using land for burials and, at the same time, move from fire-based to water-based cremations. Imagine if this proposed cemetery expansion site could be retained as a natural forest or developed into a memorial garden with the sterile, yet highly nutritious, effluent from AH fertilizing the site. I am hoping that when my time comes that will be possible.
Gail Mitchell
North Cowichan
