Want to Save the Planet? Be a Climatarian

A new diet description came into its own in 2015鈥攁nd this one has nothing to do with losing weight.

This story originally appeared on , and it is reproduced with permission.

If you try to eat locally sourced food, limit food waste, and avoid the most energy-consuming of meat products, your CO2-conscious dietary habits may have earned you a new label: 鈥渃limatarian.鈥

The term recently appeared on the New York Times鈥   of 2015鈥檚 top food-related words, along with a host of silly coinages like 鈥渃uisinomane鈥 (the Frenchified word for 鈥渇oodie鈥) and 鈥渮arf鈥 (the cardboard sheath for those piping-hot paper coffee cups). The list describes the climatarian diet as one 鈥渨hose primary goal is to reverse climate change.鈥

Since the word is just a short linguistic hop away from 鈥渧egetarian,鈥 it shouldn鈥檛 be too surprising that it鈥檚 popped up before. 探花精选 used 鈥渃limatarian鈥 in a headline back in 2009. The coinage gained popularity in 2015 partly because it was by a social network known as (and yes, the organization鈥檚 official name is formally half-bold).

Though has somewhat caught on in the Twittersphere, the jury鈥檚 still out on whether it鈥檒l ever have enough mainstream appeal to stick around. The word may never become popular for obvious reasons鈥攋ust picture yourself trying to describe the dietary restrictions of 鈥渃limatarianism鈥 to your extended family over a holiday dinner.

We鈥檙e going to see a lot of things change in the coming years: the food we eat, the words we say, and of course, the climate. Someday, we may look back and see as pretty foolhardy. Even if 鈥渃limatarian鈥 sounds ridiculous now, it鈥檚 good news that a carbon-conscious diet is popular enough to merit its very own word. But as with any new eating trend, it鈥檚 important to remember that when it comes to food, many of the rules we set for ourselves can be quite arbitrary.

And who knows? There鈥檚 the faint possibility that thanks to the changing lexicon, you鈥檒l spot a new version of that classic on the back of a car: 鈥淪ave a cow, eat a climatarian.鈥

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