New eco-related Merriam-Webster words

They’ve graduated from slang, outgrown Urbandictionary.com , folks, here are the newest words recognized by Merriam-Webster. Well not all of them, but the ones that you’ve likely seen used on this blog as well as others like it.  These are the new eco words, just a small portion of the more than 100 entries to the latest edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.  So now it’s official.  Here they are, along with the year in which Merriam-Webster researchers first found them used in an English-language publication, and their meanings:

Carbon footprint (1999): the negative impact that something (as a person or business) has on the environment; specifically: the amount of carbon emitted by something during a given period.
Green-collar (1990): of, relating to, or involving actions for protecting the natural environment. jobs>
Locavore (2005): one who eats foods grown locally whenever possible.