Funerals

The Funeral Consumers Association (FCA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting a consumer’s right to choose a meaningful, dignified, affordable funeral.  A membership organization with affiliates all around the country, they are an effective citizen’s watchdog over the funeral industry. 

Read about your rights and options when planning a funeral on the Federal Trade Commission’s website. The Federal Trade Commission is currently under criticism by the Funeral Consumers Association for failing to enforce its own rule. 

The “Green Burial” Movement

Greensprings Natural Cemetery Association publishes these eye-opening statistics:

Each year in the U.S. we bury roughly:

827,060 gallons of embalming fluid
1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults)
90,272 tons of steel (caskets)
14,000 tons of steel (vaults)
2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)
30-plus million board feet of hardwoods (much tropical; caskets)

Visit Green Burial Council.  It’s a nonprofit organization founded to educate the public about opportunities for using the burial process to encourage sustainability among cemeteries and funeral providers, to facilitate legitimate landscape level conservation efforts, and to bring about practices that are transparent, fair, and honest.

End of Life Resources

Dr. Ira Byock is a nationally recognized authority in palliative and end-of-life care. Among his many achievements in these fields are publications offering insight and help to those at the end of their lives, to their loved ones and caregivers. Go to DyingWell.org and look under "Latest Book" for The Four Things That Matter Most - a book that offers specific things you can do to empower yourself and foster wholeness in relationships as the end of life nears.  Dr. Byock has also founded Reclaim the End  to address the national crisis in the way we Americans are cared for at the end of life and what can be done about it.

Compassion Books, Inc., lists more than 400 books, videos, and audios to help children and adults through serious illness, death and dying, grief, bereavement, and other losses.

Sacred Vigil Press offers a series of end of life booklets written by a hospice social worker that offer support, guidance and suggestions to the hospice caregiver and others at the bedside of a dying person.  Includes vigiling with the dying person, conducting life reviews, managing the symptoms of impending death and offering spiritual comfort.

Funeral Resources

Crossings is a non-profit resource center for after-death care alternatives. In day-long training sessions, founder Elizabeth Knox clears up many of the misconceptions surrounding disposition of the dead and walks participants through the steps of arranging a home funeral.

Public Lands

For a brief history of our nation’s public lands, click on “Story” at the Public Lands Museum.

Living Sustainably

Many organizations dedicate themselves to helping citizens live sustainably and to helping society adopt systems that will safeguard the health of the planet.  Below, we list a few of these organizations:

• Worldwatch Institute - headquartered in Washington, DC
  
• Union of Concerned Scientists - headquartered in Massachusetts
  
• Sustainability Institute - headquartered in Vermont
  
• Earth Island Institute - headquartered in California
  
• GlobalWarmingSolution.org - headquartered in Missoula, Montana
  
• Apollo Alliance - headquartered in Washington, D.C.
  
• Second Nature - headquartered in Massachusetts
  
• EcoEarth.Info lists sustainability organizations including many from around the globe - headquartered in Wisconsin