Australian cemetery offers vertical burials

Apparently to save space and lessen environmental impacts. It set me onto a morbid train of thought: are there really sufficient numbers of humans on the planet that our bodies, as we die, could be an environmental problem in itself? I also thought it was curious that the article didn't mention cremation. That takes almost no space and I always thought it was the best option for the environment as well. Almost every relative in my family who's passed on in my lifetime has been cremated and it allowed us to personalize the funeral a lot, by placing their ashes somewhere that was meaningful to them: the pacific ocean or next to a tree planted in their honour. (Hmm, now my post seems to be wandering into 'body and soul' territory....)

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...Including Antarctica , over one fifth of the globe's land mass is under water (oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.) or ice. This leaves about 45 million square miles of exposed land. ...

...The human population on earth has crossed six billion. If we distribute all the exposed land evenly among all mankind, 133 people would have to share one square mile. What that means is that every single person on Earth, man woman and child would have close to five acres of land for his or her use. More precisely, each person would get 209,000 square feet of land, or a square plot of land 457 feet on each side...

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I understand that in Bermuda, which is all coral? stone? under the topsoil, people get buried in stacks -- deep shafts are excavated, and then you just drop one coffin in on top of the last.

In Bolivia, I recall a family member of a friend of mine passed away. In the city I was living in, there was one “nice” cemetery. This cemetery charged rent on the plot (in Latin America typically concrete crypts), but only for a maximum of 20 years, at which time the body was taken out and cremated to make space for someone else.

As it happened, at the time of this relative’s passing, the 20 year limit was fast approaching on another relative. The family snuck into the graveyard in the middle of the night, took out the body that was soon to be evicted, and surreptitiously crammed it into the crypt with their more recently deceased relative. All they would say was that the bodies had to be “rearranged” to be able to fit…

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I understand that in Bermuda, which is all coral? stone? under the topsoil...

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Limestone, which began as coral, so you're basically right.

I heard once that this vertical-burial idea was proposed many years ago in New York, where cemetery space was at a premium, but was dropped because people just found the thought too clammy. Naturally I can't find an online reference to back up this vague memory.

It's hard to see how this method of burial, in itself, will "reduce environmental impacts." If the stand-up bodies aren't embalmed -- as bodies usually don't need to be nowadays anyway, not with refrigeration available -- then there'll be no formaldehyde introduced into the subsoil. Formaldehyde is nasty, but actually breaks down rather rapidly, especially in a setting which -- to be blunt -- is itself breaking down rather rapidly, with the aid of everything from bacteria to worms. The only other things introduced into the ground in a typical graveyard that wouldn't be in this setting would be wood and cloth in caskets, which hardly qualify as contaminants.