Air Pollution, Noise Pollution, and Traffic Congestion: Disproportionate Impacts from Amazon Warehouses

Consumer Reports’ Kaveh Waddell published an article today entitled, “When Amazon Expands, These Communities Pay the Price.” Waddell explains, “CR’s investigation shows that the neighborhoods where Amazon opens warehouses often have a greater proportion of people of color than 70 percent or more of the surrounding metro area’s neighborhoods. And local activists often object to companies opening new facilities in communities where people are already burdened with environmental and health problems linked to decades of heavy commercial and industrial development.”

Anushi Garg from the CEEJH team provided background analytics for the report. Thank you, Anushi!

In the article, Dr. Sacoby Wilson connects the Amazon expansion to environmental racism, saying, “They [communities that host delivery facilities] get more traffic, air pollution, traffic jams, and pedestrian safety problems, but they don’t receive their fair share of the benefits that accrue from having the retail nearby. You can treat this pattern as a form of environmental racism.”

Click here to read the article.