En 1980 Errol Morris iniciaba su carrera como documentalista con Gates of heaven, en el que abordaba la construcción del primer cementerio de mascotas de Estados Unidos. La industria de la muerte se ha sofisticado desde entonces, también para los seres humanos, adaptándose a nuevas sensibilidades y demandas sociales.
 
 

One way to circumvent conventional burial is cremation. More than one out of three Americans now chooses this form of disposition, and in some urban areas, particularly in the West, the number is approaching three in four. While it consumes far fewer resources than the embalming-coffin-vault route, cremation isn’t an ecological cure-all. Incineration burns fossil fuel that contributes to global warming. Older facilities use up to twice as much fuel as newer ones.