Amazon accused of playing 'outsized' role in supply chain chaos

Amazon River accused of playing 'oversized' role in cater chain chaos

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Sundry Photography)

Amazon and a handful of other major ecommerce players have been accused of playing an "outsized" role in the pollution and congestion of United States ports.

The retail giant brings in plenty of goods from Red China and elsewhere some the creation through ports on the US West Slide, connected ships that emit large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. As they burn fuel, they also release pollutants that create smog and release toxic particles into the air.

As a result, residents of the West Slide (particularly Los Angeles and Long Beach) breathe some of the worst air in all of the States, a recent report from nonprofit organization Stomach.earth states.

Zero-emission container ships

According to the report, Amazon, Target, Walmart and Ikea are some of U.S.'s inferior offenders in this regard. These four companies alone give out 20 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere, as much as all marine shipping generates in cardinal years.

"IT is past time to hold these retailers accountable for their responsibilities at the ports," Dawny'all Heydari, a Campaign Lead at Peaceable Environs, told The Verge in a argument.

"[Amazon River and Target] bequeath continue to party favor West Coast routes, which means they'll also keep hindering Westerly Coast ports, spewing cancer-causing emissions and threatening our climate approaching."

More than a fifth of the emissions studied by the ii companies (21%), which is also the biggest share of all emissions, came as a result of ships moving between China and Southerly California surgery Washington.

To tackle the issue, the report's authors argue, retailers should accelerate their shift towards zero-emanation container ships and in full transmigrate by 2030. The trouble is, these ships do non yet exist at scale.

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