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Graves Go Green
Environmentally Friendly Burials Catch On

The woodland grave of Sharyn Nicholson in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Sperryville, W.Va. Click on photo for larger image. Photo by Mark Harris.  

We all know the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out. And apparently some ants may play pinochle on one’s snout. But what else is happening underground at the nation’s cemeteries? How do standard burial practices — which involve tons of steel, cement, and gallons of formaldehyde — affect our environment?

Mark Harris, a former Los Angeles Times Syndicate environmental columnist, has taken a hard look at today’s funeral industry in his new book, Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial. Read more

World Water Monitoring Day 2007 kicked off Sept. 18. Left, students from the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy (Rockville, Md.) participate in water quality monitoring tests in Alexandria, Va. Check out next month's issue of WEF Highlights for the complete story and more photos. Click on photo for larger image. For more information, see www.wwmd.org.