My name is Katrina Spade, and I grew up in a medical family where it was fairly normal to talk about death and dying at the dinner table. But I didn't go into medicine like so many of my family members. Instead, I went to architecture school to learn how to design. And while I was there, I began to be curious about what would happen to my physical body after I died. What would my nearest and dearest do with me?
Moje ime je Katrina Spade i odrasla sam u obitelji medicinara, gdje je bilo prilično normalno pričati o smrti i umiranju za večerom. No, za razliku od većine članova obitelji, nisam se bavila medicinom. Umjesto toga, pohađala sam školu arhitekture kako bih naučila dizajnirati. Dok sam bila tamo, postala sam vrlo znatiželjna o tome što će se dogoditi s mojim fizičkim tijelom nakon što umrem. Što bi moji najbliži i najdraži napravili sa mnom?
So if the existence and the fact of your own mortality doesn't get you down, the state of our current funerary practices will. Today, almost 50 percent of Americans choose conventional burial. Conventional burial begins with embalming, where funeral staff drain bodily fluid and replace it with a mixture designed to preserve the corpse and give it a lifelike glow. Then, as you know, bodies are buried in a casket in a concrete-lined grave in a cemetery. All told, in US cemeteries, we bury enough metal to build a Golden Gate Bridge, enough wood to build 1,800 single family homes, and enough formaldehyde-laden embalming fluid to fill eight Olympic-size swimming pools.
Stoga, ako vas postojanje i činjenica vlastite smrtnosti ne rastužuje, stanje naših sadašnjih pogrebnih običaja hoće. Danas, gotovo 50 posto Amerikanaca odabire tradicionalni pokop. Tradicionalni pokop započinje balzamiranjem, gdje pogrebno osoblje isisava tjelesnu tekućinu i zamjenjuje ju mješavinom koja će očuvati leš i dati mu živahni sjaj. Zatim, kao što znate, tijela se pokopavaju u lijes, u grobnici obloženoj betonom na groblju. Na američkim grobljima pokopamo dovoljno metala za izgradnju Golden Gate Bridgea, dovoljno drva za izgradnju 1800 obiteljskih kuća i dovoljno tekućine za balzamiranje formaldehidom da popuni 8 olimpijskih bazena.
In addition, cemeteries all over the world are reaching capacity. Turns out, it doesn't really make good business sense to sell someone a piece of land for eternity.
Osim toga, groblja diljem svijeta dostižu svoj maksimalan kapacitet. Ispostavilo se da zaista nema dobrog poslovnog smisla prodati nekome komad zemlje za vječnost.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Whose idea was that?
Čija je to ideja bila?
In some places, you can't buy a plot no matter how much money you have. As a result, cremation rates have risen fast. In 1950, if you suggested your grandmother be incinerated after she died, you'd probably be kicked from the family deathbed. But today, almost half of Americans choose cremation, citing simpler, cheaper and more ecological as reasons. I used to think that cremation was a sustainable form of disposition, but just think about it for a second. Cremation destroys the potential we have to give back to the earth after we've died. It uses an energy-intensive process to turn bodies into ash, polluting the air and contributing to climate change. All told, cremations in the US emit a staggering 600 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. The truly awful truth is that the very last thing that most of us will do on this earth is poison it.
Na nekim mjestima ne možete kupiti zemljište bez obzira koliko novca imate. Kao rezultat toga, stope kremiranja brzo su porasle. Da ste 1950. godine predložili da se vaša baka spali nakon smrti, vjerojatno bi bili izbačeni iz obiteljske grobnice. Danas, gotovo polovica Amerikanaca odabire kremiranje, jednostavnije je, jeftinije i ekološki prihvatljivije. Mislila sam da je kremiranje održiv oblik raspolaganja, no, razmislite o tome na trenutak. Kremiranje uništava potencijal koji imamo da vratimo zemlji nakon što smo umrli. Ono koristi energetski intenzivan proces za pretvaranje tijela u pepeo i time zagađuje zrak te doprinosi klimatskim promjenama. Sve u svemu, kremiranje u SAD-u godišnje emitira nevjerojatnih 270 milijuna kilograma ugljičnog dioksida u atmosferu. Doista strašna istina je da će posljednja stvar koju će većina nas učiniti na ovoj Zemlji, je otrovati je.
It's like we've created, accepted and death-denied our way into a status quo that puts as much distance between ourselves and nature as is humanly possible. Our modern funerary practices are designed to stave off the natural processes that happen to a body after death. In other words, they're meant to prevent us from decomposing. But the truth is that nature is really, really good at death. We've all seen it. When organic material dies in nature, microbes and bacteria break it down into nutrient-rich soil, completing the life cycle. In nature, death creates life.
To je kao da smo stvorili, prihvatili i smrću odbacili naš put u trenutno stanje koje stavlja toliko udaljenosti između nas samih i prirode koliko je ljudski moguće. Naša suvremena pogrebna praksa osmišljena je kako bi spriječila prirodne procese koji se događaju tijelu nakon smrti. Drugim riječima, oni za cilj imaju spriječiti naše raspadanje. Ali, istina je da je priroda zaista dobra u smrti. Svi smo to vidjeli. Kada organski materijal umre u prirodi, mikroorganizmi i bakterije razgrađuju ga u tlo bogato hranjivim tvarima, dovršavajući životni ciklus. U prirodi, smrt stvara život.
Back in architecture school, I was thinking about all this, and I set out on a plan to redesign death care. Could I create a system that was beneficial to the earth and that used nature as a guide rather than something to be feared? Something that was gentle to the planet? That planet, after all, supports our living bodies our whole lives.
Tada u školi arhitekture, razmišljala sam o svemu ovome i postavila sam plan redizajniranja pogrebne skrbi. Mogu li stvoriti sustav koji je koristan za Zemlju i koji koristi prirodu kao vodič, a ne nešto čega se treba bojati? Nešto što je blago za planet? Taj planet, naposljetku, održava naša živuća tijela kroz cijeli život.
And while I was mulling this all over over the drawing board, the phone rang. It was my friend Kate. She was like, "Hey, have you heard about the farmers who are composting whole cows?" And I was like, "Mmmm."
Dok sam razmišljala i skicirala to, telefon je zazvonio. Bila je to prijateljica Kate. Bila je kao, „Hej, jesi li čula za poljoprivrednike koji kompostiraju cijele krave?” A ja sam samo nešto kao, „Mmmm.“
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Turns out that farmers in agricultural institutions have been practicing something called livestock mortality composting for decades. Mortality composting is where you take an animal high in nitrogen and cover it with co-composting materials that are high in carbon. It's an aerobic process, so it requires oxygen, and it requires plenty of moisture as well. In the most basic setup, a cow is covered with a few feet of wood chips, which are high in carbon, and left outside for nature, for breezes to provide oxygen and rain to provide moisture. In about nine months, all that remains is a nutrient-rich compost. The flesh has been decomposed entirely, as have the bones. I know.
Ispostavilo se da farmeri u poljoprivrednim institucijama prakticiraju nešto što se zove kompostiranje mrtve stoke već desetljećima. Kompostiranje stoke je proces u kojem uzimate životinju bogatu dušikom i prekrivate ju ko-kompostiranim materijalima bogatim ugljikom. To je aerobni proces pa zahtijeva kisik i puno vlage. U osnovnoj postavi krava je prekrivena s nekoliko metara drvne biomase, koja je bogata ugljikom i ostavljena je u prirodi kako bi povjetarac osigurao kisik, a kiša vlagu. Za otprilike devet mjeseci ostaje samo kompost bogat hranjivim tvarima. Meso je potpuno razgrađeno, kao i kosti. Znam.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
So I would definitely call myself a decomposition nerd, but I am far, far from a scientist, and one way you can tell this is true is that I have often called the process of composting "magic."
Zato bih sebe definitivno nazvala štreberom razgradnje, ali sam vrlo daleko od znanstvenika, vidjeli ste da je to istina, jer često proces kompostiranja nazivam magijom.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
So basically, all we humans need to do is create the right environment for nature to do its job. It's like the opposite of antibacterial soap. Instead of fighting them, we welcome microbes and bacteria in with open arms. These tiny, amazing creatures break down molecules into smaller molecules and atoms, which are then incorporated into new molecules. In other words, that cow is transformed. It's no longer a cow. It's been cycled back into nature. See? Magic.
Dakle, u osnovi, sve što mi ljudi trebamo učiniti je stvoriti pravo okruženje za prirodu da obavi svoj posao. To je kao suprotnost antibakterijskom sapunu. Umjesto borbe protiv njih, dočekujemo mikrobe i bakterije raširenih ruku. Ta sitna, nevjerojatna stvorenja razgrađuju molekule u manje molekule i atome, koji se zatim ugrađuju u nove molekule. Drugim riječima, krava je transformirana. Više nije krava. Vraćena je natrag u prirodu. Vidite? Magija.
You can probably imagine the light bulb that went off in my head after I received that phone call. I began designing a system based on the principles of livestock mortality composting that would take human beings and transform them into soil.
Vjerojatno možete zamisliti žarulju koja mi se upalila u glavi nakon što sam primila taj telefonski poziv. Počela sam dizajnirati sustav koji se temelji na principima kompostiranja mrtve stoke, koji bi primao ljudska bića i pretvarao ih u tlo.
Fast-forward five years and the project has grown in ways I truly never could have imagined. We've created a scalable, replicable non-profit urban model based on the science of livestock mortality composting that turns human beings into soil. We've partnered and collaborated with experts in soil science, decomposition, alternative death care, law and architecture. We've raised funds from foundations and individuals in order to design a prototype of this system, and we've heard from tens of thousands of people all over the world who want this option to be available. OK. In the next few years, it's our goal to build the first full-scale human composting facility right in the city of Seattle.
Unazad pet godina projekt je narastao na načine koje nikada nisam mogla zamisliti. Izradili smo skalabilan, replicirajući neprofitni urbani model, koji se temelji na znanosti o kompostiranju mrtve stoke, koja ljudska bića pretvara u tlo. Udružili smo se i surađivali smo sa stručnjacima za tlo, raspadanje, alternativnu pogrebnu skrb, zakon i arhitekturu. Prikupljali smo sredstva od zaklada i pojedinaca, kako bismo dizajnirali prototip ovog sustava i kontaktirali su nas deseci tisuća ljudi širom svijeta koji žele da ova opcija bude dostupna. U redu. U narednih nekoliko godina, cilj nam je izgraditi prvo kompletno postrojenje za kompostiranje ljudi u Seattleu.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Imagine it, part public park, part funeral home, part memorial to the people we love, a place where we can reconnect with the cycles of nature and treat bodies with gentleness and respect.
Zamislite to, dijelom javni park, dijelom pogrebno poduzeće, dijelom spomen na ljude koje volimo, mjesto gdje se možemo povezati s ciklusima prirode i tretirati tijela s blagošću i poštovanjem.
The infrastructure is simple. Inside a vertical core, bodies and wood chips undergo accelerated natural decomposition, or composting, and are transformed into soil. When someone dies, their body is taken to a human composting facility. After wrapping the deceased in a simple shroud, friends and family carry the body to the top of the core, which contains the natural decomposition system. During a laying in ceremony, they gently place the body into the core and cover it with wood chips. This begins the gentle transformation from human to soil. Over the next few weeks, the body decomposes naturally. Microbes and bacteria break down carbon, then protein, to create a new substance, a rich, earthy soil. This soil can then be used to grow new life. Eventually, you could be a lemon tree.
Infrastruktura je jednostavna. Unutar vertikalne jezgre tijela i drvna biomasa prolaze kroz ubrzanu prirodnu razgradnju ili kompostiranje i pretvaraju se u tlo. Kad netko umre, njegovo se tijelo odvede u postrojenje za kompostiranje. Nakon umatanja pokojnika u jednostavno platno, prijatelji i obitelj nose tijelo na vrh jezgre, koja sadrži prirodni sustav razgradnje. Tijekom svečanosti polaganja, nježno stavljaju tijelo u jezgru i pokrivaju ga drvnom biomasom. Ovo započinje nježnu transformaciju od čovjeka do tla. Tijekom sljedećih nekoliko tjedana tijelo se prirodno razgrađuje. Mikrobi i bakterije razgrađuju ugljik, zatim proteine, kako bi stvorili novu tvar, bogato, zemljano tlo. Ovo se tlo može koristiti za rast novoga života. Na kraju, možete biti drvo limuna.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Yeah, thank you.
Da, hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Who's thinking about lemon meringue pie right now?
Tko sada razmišlja o piti od limuna?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
A lemon drop? Something stronger?
O kapljici limuna? O nečem jačem?
So in addition to housing the core, these buildings will function to support the grieving by providing space for memorial services and end-of-life planning. The potential for repurposing is huge. Old churches and industrial warehouses can be converted into places where we create soil and honor life.
Uz zbrinjavanje u jezgri, ove će zgrade podržavati tugovanje dajući prostor za memorijalne usluge i planiranje kraja života. Mogućnost za prenamjenu je ogromna. Stare crkve i industrijska skladišta mogu se pretvoriti u mjesta gdje stvaramo tlo i odajemo počast životu.
We want to bring back the aspect of ritual that's been diluted over the past hundred years as cremation rates have risen and religious affiliation has declined. Our Seattle facility will function as a model for these places all over the world. We've heard from communities in South Africa, Australia, the UK, Canada and beyond. We're creating a design toolkit that will help others design and build facilities that will contain technical specifications and regulatory best practices. We want to help individuals, organizations, and down the road, municipalities design and build facilities in their own cities. The idea is that every one of these places should look and feel completely different with the same system inside. They're really meant to be designed for the neighborhood in which they reside and the community which they serve.
Želimo vratiti aspekt obreda koji je izgubljen tijekom proteklih stotinu godina, dok je stopa kremiranja porasla, a vjerska pripadnost je smanjena. Naša ustanova u Seattleu će funkcionirati kao model za ova mjesta diljem svijeta. Kontaktirale su nas zajednice iz Južne Afrike, Australije, Velike Britanije, Kanade i šire. Izrađujemo priručnik za dizajn koji će pomoći drugima u dizajniranju i izgradnji objekata, koji će sadržavati tehničke specifikacije i najbolje regulatorne vještine. Želimo pomoći pojedincima, organizacijama i općinama oko projektiranja i izgradnje objekata u njihovim gradovima. Ideja je da svako mjesto treba izgledati drugačije i davati drugačiji osjećaj s istim sustavom iznutra. Mjesta trebaju dizajnom biti prilagođena susjedstvu u kojemu se nalaze i zajednici kojoj služe.
The other idea is for supportive staff to be on hand to help families with the care and preparation of loved ones' bodies. We're banishing practices that bewilder and disempower and creating a system that is beautiful and meaningful and transparent. We believe that access to ecological death care is a human right.
Druga ideja je da pomoćno osoblje bude na raspolaganju, kako bi pomoglo obiteljima pri skrbi i pripremi tijela njihovih najmilijih. Izbjegavamo običaje koji su zbunjujući i nelagodni te stvaramo sustav koji je lijep, smislen i transparentan. Vjerujemo da je pristup ekološkoj pogrebnoj skrbi ljudsko pravo.
OK, so you know the old saying, if you can compost a cow, you can compost a human?
U redu, znate staru izreku, ako možete kompostirati kravu, možete i čovjeka?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Turns out, it's true. Since 2014, we've been running a pilot project in the hills of North Carolina with the Forensic Anthropology Department at Western Carolina University. Six donor bodies have been covered in wood chips, oxygen provided by breezes, microbes and bacteria doing their jobs. This pilot program has allowed us to demonstrate that it's possible to harness the incredible power of natural decomposition to turn human bodies into soil, and we're working with other universities as well. Soil scientists at Washington State University, the grad students, anyway, are working to compost teeth with amalgam fillings so that we can understand what happens to the mercury therein. Next up, we'll be beginning experiments to determine what happens to chemo drugs and pharmaceuticals during the composting process, and whether additional remediation will be needed.
Ispostavlja se da je to istina. Od 2014. vodimo pilot projekt na brežuljcima Sjeverne Karoline s Odjelom forenzičke antropologije na Sveučilištu Western Carolina. Šest donorskih tijela pokriveno je drvnom biomasom, kisikom kojega pružaju povjetarci, mikrobima i bakterijama koje obavljaju svoj posao. Ovaj pilot program nam je omogućio da pokažemo da je moguće iskoristiti nevjerojatnu snagu prirodne razgradnje za pretvaranje ljudskih tijela u tlo te radimo i s drugim sveučilištima. Znanstvenici za tlo na Državnom sveučilištu Washington, diplomirani studenti, rade na kompostiranju zuba s amalgamskim punjenjem, kako bismo razumjeli što se događa sa živom u njemu. Dalje, započet ćemo eksperimente kako bismo utvrdili što se događa s kemoterapijama i lijekovima tijekom procesa kompostiranja i hoće li biti potrebna dodatna sanacija.
By the way, composting creates a great deal of heat, especially this particular type of composting. One week after we began composting our fifth donor body, the temperature inside that mound of wood chips reached 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Imagine harnessing that heat to create energy or comfort the grieving on a cold day.
Uostalom, kompostiranje stvara veliku količinu topline, osobito ovaj tip kompostiranja. Tjedan dana nakon početka kompostiranja petog doniranog tijela, temperatura unutar tog humka drvne biomase dosegla je 70 stupnjeva Celzijevih. Zamislite da iskoristite tu toplinu kako biste stvorili energiju ili ugodili tugovanje na hladan dan.
The death care revolution has begun. It's an exciting time to be alive.
Počela je revolucija pogrebne skrbi. Ovo je uzbudljivo vrijeme za biti živ.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)