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Archbishop Desmond Tutu was known for his modest
lifestyle. (Reuters: Carlos Barria)
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The archbishop, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, has been praised around the world for his role in helping transform South Africa with his non-violent opposition to white minority rule.
He died aged 90. He was outspoken about protecting the environment, giving speeches and writing articles about the need to take action to combat climate change, and requested his body be aquamated — considered to be a greener alternative to cremation.
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Desmond Tutu's funeral was held at St George's Cathedral a week
after his death at the age of 90. (Reuters: Jaco Marais)
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Aquamation is a cremation method using water that funeral parlours are touting as environmentally friendly.
The process, also known as "alkaline hydrolysis", consists of cremation by water rather than fire.
The body of the deceased is immersed for three to four hours in a mixture of water and strong alkali-like potassium hydroxide in a pressurised metal cylinder and heated to around 150 degrees Celsius.
The process liquefies everything except for the bones, which are then dried in an oven, reduced to white dust and placed in an urn.
The water can be processed through normal wastewater treatment facilities.
How long has it been around?
First developed in the early 1990s as a way to discard the bodies of animals used in experiments, the method was later used to dispose of cows during the mad cow disease epidemic, US-based researcher Philip R Olson says.
In the 2000s, US medical schools used aquamation to dispose of donated human cadavers, before the practice made its way into the funeral industry, he wrote in a 2014 paper.
The process is also used to dispose of animal carcasses in slaughterhouses, where it is considered to be more efficient and hygienic.
With burial space in urban areas worldwide becoming increasingly scarce and expensive, aquamation has obvious attractions.
However, like human composting — a technique of composting bodies with layers of organic material like leaves or wood chips — aquamation is still authorised only in certain countries.
In South Africa, where Tutu died, no legislation governs the practice.
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu was remembered as a man whose
light shone brighter after winning the Nobel Peace Prize. (Reuters: Shelley Christians)
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Its advocates claim water is a gentler way to go than flames, a liquid cremation consumes less energy than a conventional one and emits fewer greenhouse gases.
According to UK-based firm Resomation, aquamation uses five times less energy than fire and reduces a funeral's emissions of greenhouse gases by around 35 per cent.
Environmentally Friendly Cremations, a company based in Australia, claims water cremation "produces less than 10 per cent of the carbon emissions" of fire cremation, and a firm based in the US said the process "uses 90 per cent less energy than flame cremation".
Tutu, who died on Boxing Day aged 90, was known for his modest lifestyle. He left instructions that his funeral ceremony should be simple and without frills.
The anti-apartheid hero specifically asked for a cheap coffin and the eco-friendly cremation.
Links
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Climate Change
- Desmond Tutu: We fought apartheid. Now climate change is our global enemy
- Desmond Tutu: We do not need climate change apartheid in adaptation
- Archbishop Tutu: Environmental destruction is the human rights challenge of our time
- Desmond Tutu: Climate change is the apartheid of our times
- South Africa's Desmond Tutu and Al Gore urge end to fossil fuels
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