Sustainable Afterlife

The Future of Our End

While there are certain aspects of dealing with death that seem to be uniform across culture and time, the rituals and methods for coping differ from culture to culture and have changed greatly over time. Even just over the past 100 years mourning traditions have changed in reaction to wars and a shift in gender roles and family dynamics. Thus it only makes sense that our advances in technology will also have an effect on how we deal with death and our burial rituals/mourning traditions. As mentioned in this article, there is also a movement toward a more sustainable way of spending one's afterlife. The article describes the process of resomation, “a water and alkali-based process that turns bodies into a mix of liquid and minerals. Resomation uses less energy than cremation and emits significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions.” 
There are several more interesting new ideas for creative, modern ways of preserving human remains on this site including, for example, a battery made with the human remains.