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You can be green even after you've passed away with a new method of burial called "promession."
Word of Mouth
Summer Reading Gets a Makeover
By Martha Poole on Friday, July 3, 2009.
Ah, the summer reading list. For generations of school children it’s been the bane of an otherwise carefree summer. Maybe you remember those feelings of loathing and resentment, looking at a long list of stodgy classics. If this is case, you’ll be glad to know that the reading list as we knew it may be going out of fashion.
Ecocide in the Congo
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, July 2, 2009.
War and environmental degradation share a long history.
The Romans blighted the fields of Carthage with salt back in 146 BC. The flattened villages of Flanders...Agent Orange stripping the jungles of Vietnam...the burning oil wells in Iraq. These are just a few illustrations of the long term environmental ruin left after battle. There’s a term for it, in fact: ecocide, literally meaning the killing of the environment.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 12 years of conflict have cost more than five million human lives. One million people have been displaced, many living in over-crowded camps with little food and little hope. More tragic still, the enduring toll on the environment will likely affect citizens for generations to come. Washington Post reporter Delphine Schrank spent a year in the DRC as an International Reporting Project fellow. She witnessed the bloodshed and the ecocide and joined us on the line from New York with more.
The Atlantic: As Go The Hippos...
(Photo by *Simian* via Flickr/Creative Commons)
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War and environmental degradation share a long history.
The Romans blighted the fields of Carthage with salt back in 146 BC. The flattened villages of Flanders...Agent Orange stripping the jungles of Vietnam...the burning oil wells in Iraq. These are just a few illustrations of the long term environmental ruin left after battle. There’s a term for it, in fact: ecocide, literally meaning the killing of the environment.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 12 years of conflict have cost more than five million human lives. One million people have been displaced, many living in over-crowded camps with little food and little hope. More tragic still, the enduring toll on the environment will likely affect citizens for generations to come. Washington Post reporter Delphine Schrank spent a year in the DRC as an International Reporting Project fellow. She witnessed the bloodshed and the ecocide and joined us on the line from New York with more.
The Atlantic: As Go The Hippos...
(Photo by *Simian* via Flickr/Creative Commons)
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Decomposting the Dead
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, July 2, 2009.
Over the past several years, “green” cemeteries have been popping up in Canada, the United Kingdom and the U.S...even here in New Hampshire.
A Swedish company is taking the concept one step further. Promessa Organic AB has developed a technique for composting bodies completely. It involves freezing the corpse with liquid nitrogen until it becomes brittle, then vibrating the cadaver until it breaks down into a fine powder. After a few more steps, family members receive a box of remains that will biodegrade in a shallow grave within twelve months.
The process is called promession and clearly, it’s kind of creepy to explain. So far it’s only been tried on pigs and cows. But the first promatorium could open in Sweden as early as next year. James Glave told us more. He’s a freelance journalist who wrote about promession in the July/August issue of Walrus Magazine. He joined us from Bowen Island, British Columbia as part of our Next Green Thing series.
Walrus Magazine: Decomposting Bodies: What's the Greenest Way to Dispose of Human Remains?
(Photo by hubb-a-dubbs via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Over the past several years, “green” cemeteries have been popping up in Canada, the United Kingdom and the U.S...even here in New Hampshire.
A Swedish company is taking the concept one step further. Promessa Organic AB has developed a technique for composting bodies completely. It involves freezing the corpse with liquid nitrogen until it becomes brittle, then vibrating the cadaver until it breaks down into a fine powder. After a few more steps, family members receive a box of remains that will biodegrade in a shallow grave within twelve months.
The process is called promession and clearly, it’s kind of creepy to explain. So far it’s only been tried on pigs and cows. But the first promatorium could open in Sweden as early as next year. James Glave told us more. He’s a freelance journalist who wrote about promession in the July/August issue of Walrus Magazine. He joined us from Bowen Island, British Columbia as part of our Next Green Thing series.
Walrus Magazine: Decomposting Bodies: What's the Greenest Way to Dispose of Human Remains?
(Photo by hubb-a-dubbs via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Plants, Not Pills In Oakland
By Tania Ketenjian on Thursday, July 2, 2009.
In New Hampshire, Gov. John Lynch is weighing the pros and cons of a medical marijuana bill that the legislature approved in June.
Medicinal marijuana has been legal in California since 1996. The dispensaries in the city of Oakland bring $20 million in sales each year. Now the Bay Area city is considering taxing that revenue.
The BBC’s Tania Ketenjian took us inside an Oakland dispensary to find out why people with health problems are turning to a plant instead of a pill.
Listen to Tania Ketenjian's Health Check report at the BBC
(Photo by lochnessjess via Flickr/Creative Commons)
In New Hampshire, Gov. John Lynch is weighing the pros and cons of a medical marijuana bill that the legislature approved in June.
Medicinal marijuana has been legal in California since 1996. The dispensaries in the city of Oakland bring $20 million in sales each year. Now the Bay Area city is considering taxing that revenue.
The BBC’s Tania Ketenjian took us inside an Oakland dispensary to find out why people with health problems are turning to a plant instead of a pill.
Listen to Tania Ketenjian's Health Check report at the BBC
(Photo by lochnessjess via Flickr/Creative Commons)
The Racial Politics of Web 2.0
By Martha Poole on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.
The recent uprisings in Iran may prove that social media sites have changed the way we communicate for good. But while many laud Facebook and Twitter for giving a voice to citizen journalists around the world, one expert has voiced her reservations.
What Do You Keep Track Of?
By Avishay Artsy on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.
Next week on Word of Mouth, self-knowledge through numbers. High-tech monitors allow us to record our running speed, caffeine and alcohol intake, heart rate, diet, and sleep patterns. We now use our smartphones to signal our location and tweet what we eat, participate in drug trials and medical studies, and keep track of our finances or menstrual cycles online, and compare that data with others.
Sewage Happens
By Amy Standen on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.
Think your city has a sewage problem? You haven't seen the half of it. San Francisco's Bay Area sits on top of a ticking time bomb: a vast network of disintegrating sewage pipes, some of them made of clay and dating back to the Gold Rush.
KQED Quest's Amy Standen visited the frontlines of the war on sewage: plumbers who make their living off of busted pipes, as well as a city official with an unenviable job: trying to sell the city on a multi-billion dollar plan to fix the system.
Listen to Standen's Report at the Public Radio Exchange
(Photo by liltree via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Think your city has a sewage problem? You haven't seen the half of it. San Francisco's Bay Area sits on top of a ticking time bomb: a vast network of disintegrating sewage pipes, some of them made of clay and dating back to the Gold Rush.
KQED Quest's Amy Standen visited the frontlines of the war on sewage: plumbers who make their living off of busted pipes, as well as a city official with an unenviable job: trying to sell the city on a multi-billion dollar plan to fix the system.
Listen to Standen's Report at the Public Radio Exchange
(Photo by liltree via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Pitiful Prose
By Zach Johnk on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.
San Jose State University's annual writing competition recently concluded with a bizarre twist: its winners were recognized for their extraordinarily poor writing.
Infantry + iPods
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.
The band 4th25 (pronounced "Fourth Quarter") is no ordinary hip-hop group. It is made up of American soldiers, serving in Iraq. The song “Live from Iraq” documents the real experience of being at war.
As U.S. combat forces pull out of Iraqi cities this week, we’re looking back at six long and bloody years marked by a determined insurgency and sectarian bloodshed. For U.S. troops, the war also had a soundtrack. Soldiers used music to psychologically prepare themselves for sweeps and battles, to grieve losses, and controversially, to wear down prisoners.
Jonathan Pieslak spent several years talking to soldiers about how music became a part of their lives in Iraq. He’s a composer and an associate professor at the City College of New York, and his new book is called Sound Targets.
The New York Post: Notes From the Front: Soldiers Tune In to the Iraq War
(Photo by ob1left via Flickr/Creative Commons)
The band 4th25 (pronounced "Fourth Quarter") is no ordinary hip-hop group. It is made up of American soldiers, serving in Iraq. The song “Live from Iraq” documents the real experience of being at war.
As U.S. combat forces pull out of Iraqi cities this week, we’re looking back at six long and bloody years marked by a determined insurgency and sectarian bloodshed. For U.S. troops, the war also had a soundtrack. Soldiers used music to psychologically prepare themselves for sweeps and battles, to grieve losses, and controversially, to wear down prisoners.
Jonathan Pieslak spent several years talking to soldiers about how music became a part of their lives in Iraq. He’s a composer and an associate professor at the City College of New York, and his new book is called Sound Targets.
The New York Post: Notes From the Front: Soldiers Tune In to the Iraq War
(Photo by ob1left via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Trying to Raze the Recession
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.
At the turn of the century, the city of Flint, Michigan was a lively metropolis. The original home of General Motors boasted grand hotels and lavish restaurants that have faded over the past forty years.
Boarded-up windows and foreclosed homes now line many of the city’s streets. Local officials faced the risk of those empty houses becoming magnets for crime and pestilence, or trying something new: tearing them down.
More than one thousand abandoned homes have been demolished so far, due in part to the efforts of Dan Kildee. He’s the treasurer of Michigan’s Genesee county and a driving force behind Flint’s efforts to raze abandoned neighborhoods. A number of other Rust Belt cities are closely watching the results. Dan Kildee joined us from his office in Flushing, Michigan.
The Telegraph (UK): U.S. Cities May Have to Be Bulldozed to Survive
(Photo by justindula via Flickr/Creative Commons)
At the turn of the century, the city of Flint, Michigan was a lively metropolis. The original home of General Motors boasted grand hotels and lavish restaurants that have faded over the past forty years.
Boarded-up windows and foreclosed homes now line many of the city’s streets. Local officials faced the risk of those empty houses becoming magnets for crime and pestilence, or trying something new: tearing them down.
More than one thousand abandoned homes have been demolished so far, due in part to the efforts of Dan Kildee. He’s the treasurer of Michigan’s Genesee county and a driving force behind Flint’s efforts to raze abandoned neighborhoods. A number of other Rust Belt cities are closely watching the results. Dan Kildee joined us from his office in Flushing, Michigan.
The Telegraph (UK): U.S. Cities May Have to Be Bulldozed to Survive
(Photo by justindula via Flickr/Creative Commons)
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Word of Mouth is all about what's new. Online and on-air, the show looks at our fascinating and ever-changing world, and puts the latest ideas under a microscope. Word of Mouth investigates everything from science and technology, to health and the environment, to new trends in popular culture. The show airs Monday through Thursday at noon and is hosted by Virginia Prescott.
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