What I Should Have Called My New Book About the Climate
The New York Times is right: We need climate self-care more than climate diets
This weekend The New York Times published a smart, thoughtful review of The Climate Diet, a book I have out this spring from Penguin Press. Over the years I’ve trained myself to let criticism of my work stand for itself. Having written my fair share of reviews of environmental books I understand that it’s a surprisingly tough job and the last thing a reviewer needs after drafting a time-consuming essay is an extended dialogue with an author. All that said, this reviewer raised such a salient point that I felt I should offer up a reply.
I used that title as a way of pointing out that Americans are “climate obese” adding far more emissions per capita than the citizens of other large economic powers. But the reviewer quite rightly pointed out that people don’t necessarily like the word “diet” or the concept of dieting. What we really need, she wrote, is some way of framing climate-friendly lifestyle changes not necessarily as painful or depriving, but rather as nurturing of ourselves and the planet. Why not Climate Self-Care or Climate Wellness she suggested.
And you know what? I agree.
