I'm one of the founders of the Rainforest Action Network. My parents put me on an airplane, a Pan Am DC-10 in 1955 from Los Angeles to Ecuador, South America where I spent the next 10 years with my aunt. I flew very close to the ground, over green mountains, forests and the largest swamp in the world, the Darian swamp, between Colombia and Panama.

Since then I have driven to South America several times and also received a grant from Sir Paul McCartney to do a speaking tour of South America about the dangers of deforestation.

In my travels I have seen rain forests turn to deserts in my short lifespan. Here in Colorado, pollution has weakened the immune system of millions of acres of pine trees. They are dying from pine beetle infestation. We need to reforest the planet.

When I returned to the USA in the 60's, my mom took me to see a dark comedy titled, "The Loved One". In this movie, a rich man dies of suicide and his nephew has to make the funeral arrangements. He is taken to a "showroom" where he is browbeaten into buying the most expensive casket, made of tropical hardwoods, with the finest silk lining and steel.

Each year 5,000,400.00 pounds of steel are buried in caskets. Thirty million board feet of tropical hardwoods and and close to 900,000. gallons of toxic embalming fluid are used in these funerals in the USA alone.

For more info, please go to my web site:

http://www.greenfuneralscolorado.com/

Here I present my idea of a Green Funeral. A way to leave the planet with more trees, return to the earth mother leaving a living tree that has nourished itself from your body as a living testament of your final carbon footprint on earth.

Instead of burning your body to an ashen Dorito, you could do something good, for your friends, for your family and for all the loved ones you leave behind. A living example, a cooling shade, a place for a picnic.

So if you had your choice of tree as your final legacy, what would it be?