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I don't think I can give up Amazon completely. After doing this much research, I have learned a lot about Amazon. I learned that Amazon is far from perfect, and has many negative impacts. Some of the facts I learned really shocked me. Even though I know all about the bad things about Amazon, like how much carbon they emit, I still think that I am going to use it. Amazon has been really useful for me and my family when we are overseas, and in places where we can't get certain things. When I do use Amazon, I will be sure to think about if I really need the thing I am buying. I will think about whether I can do without it or go to a different place to get it. I don't think I will stop using Amazon, but I will try to be more aware of what I am doing and how it impacts humans and the environment.

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Amazon has a huge impact on the environment. Amazon wants to build 102 data centers in northern Virginia alone, and the electricity providers have to keep up with all the new buildings. This means they have to make more fossil fuel plants to get more energy. Because Amazon has an easy way to send back items, they have to have a way to efficiently store those items. But this would cost a lot of money, so millions of returned items get destroyed and sent to landfills. Amazon also does e-waste. E-waste means electronic waste, or old electronics we need to get rid of. Such as phones, computers, or televisions. These items usually get put in landfills or buried underground. The toxic chemicals in these items could pollute the soil and water. This is “toxic to human health” and can lead to problems with the brain, heart and liver. Amazon also uses very few eco-friendly materials. Instead of using eco friendly materials like  But this is not the biggest environmental impact that Amazon has. Amazon releases a huge amount of carbon dioxide each year. The emissions were up 40% from 2019. As of 2023, Amazon emitted 71.54 million metric tons of carbon dioxide yearly. One metric ton is almost 2,205 lbs. They also do this thing they call Prime Day. This is a day where all Prime members get discounts on all the products. This means those people are buying, and returning more items. More people buying leads to more activity in the company, more carbon emissions, and more items sent to landfills. All of these things are how Amazon has a big impact on the environment.

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How Amazon Has Tried to Fix Their Problems

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How Amazon Has Tried to Fix Their Problems

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Amazon tries to fix their negative impacts. One of their problems that Amazon has is their huge carbon footprint. A carbon footprint is how much carbon dioxide they emit. Amazon is trying to decrease its carbon footprint by making hydrogen to power their vehicles. Asad Jafry, Amazon’s director of global hydrogen economy said “Hydrogen is an important tool in our efforts to decarbonize our operations by 2040.” To fix Amazon's carbon footprint they need a clean way to deliver packages. Hydrogen is supposed to be a better resource than fossil fuels, but research is still being done. Hydrogen power releases water vapor instead of carbon dioxide. But it can release planet-heating carbon dioxide, and methane leaks are a worse greenhouse gas than CO2. There is a solution to this problem. The electrolyzer process. This is a process of using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This is much better for the environment because it is carbon free, but the only problem is that it is more expensive to use this process. Amazon's carbon emissions have been getting worse over the years, but they have many emission goals. They have spent millions of dollars on wind and solar energy. They pledged to be “net zero carbon” by 2040. Amazon is also the world's largest company buyer of renewable energy. They have over 9,000 electric vehicles. Their work is starting to pay off. Carbon emissions fell 0.4% between 2021 and 2022. It went from 72.54 million metric tons to 71.27 million metric tons. One more thing that Amazon is doing to solve some of its negative impacts is improving their packaging. Amazon introduced the Ships In Own Container program. This solves some of their negative impacts because the Ships In Own Container program means Amazon delivers more products in their original packaging. Before, Amazon would package the items in their own packaging. In this process, they would waste a lot of materials. Amazon is also using more recyclable materials. Amazon created the paper-padded mailer. It has the same recyclability as boxes, but they take up less space in transport and in recycle bins. This makes it easier to recycle which might make more people recycle them. Amazon is really trying to fix a lot of their negative impacts, and those were some of the ideas and things they did.

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Amazon is a big company, so they have to have a big workforce. In just the middle of 2023, Amazon employed around 1.5 million people. This means many people have gotten jobs, and found a way to earn money from Amazon. As well as a lot of human workers, they have also added more than 750,000 robots to help work. Because of this, they have 75% faster sorting. Some people are thinking that Amazon is going to replace the human workers for faster robot workers, so Amazon tries to reassure them by saying that they are not replacing them. But because robots can be much faster and more efficient, Amazon, as well as other companies, are adding more and more robots to their workforces. And even though they said this, since late 2022, they have laid off 27,000 workers. Amazon is also laying off 100s of employees at its studio division. Chris Smalls said, “It’s expected—I know they were always pushing toward that direction. Even though they made this announcement, I believe they’re still a ways away from [full automation]. It would be pretty difficult to massively swap out the workforce that they have.”Amazon also has problems in their workforce. The University of Illinois Chicago’s Center for Urban Economic Development surveyed 1,484 Amazon workers in 42 states (451 facilities). 44% said they couldn’t take breaks when they needed to. As a result of this, they were probably having a bad time during work. The survey also showed they were overworked in other ways because almost 70% who took the survey said they took unpaid time off because of pain/exhaustion in the past month. 34% had to do this three or more times. The survey showed that there were also injuries. The most common injuries were Sprains, strains or tears, and Half of them said they had pain in their knee, leg, or foot. All of this would make them overworked and tired which could slow down their productivity speed. Amazon has  big impacts on their many workers.

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Amazon worker and robot working together to move supplies

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Amazon is planning to build many data centers in Virginia. Data centers are buildings that store machines and hardware equipment. These machines contain things that  IT systems require. Like servers, data storage, drives, and network equipment. They let companies like Amazon deliver services to customers worldwide. Many people work at data centers to make sure everything is working right. In 2023, Dominion said the increasing energy demand in the region was “driven primarily by data centers.” The Virginia Data Center Reform Coalition which includes 20 advocacy groups like the Piedmont Environmental Council wants Virgina to think about the “snowballing effects” of data-center development. Amazon is planning to build many data centers in Virginia. Data centers are buildings that store machines and hardware equipment. These machines contain things that  IT systems require. Like servers, data storage, drives, and network equipment. They let companies like Amazon deliver services to customers worldwide. Many people work at data centers to make sure everything is working right. In 2023, Dominion said the increasing energy demand in the region was “driven primarily by data centers.” The Virginia Data Center Reform Coalition which includes 20 advocacy groups like the Piedmont Environmental Council wants Virgina to think about the “snowballing effects” of data-center development. This affects them because the data centers could be getting made on or near their electrical grids, water resources. This could affect the air quality and land-conservation efforts. At the Piedmont community meeting, Julie Bolthouse who is a director of land for Piedmont Environmental Council warned, “We’re basically going into an energy crisis if we continue to go in the direction we’re currently headed in Virginia.” Amazon building so many data centers in Virginia them because the data centers could be getting made on or near their electrical grids, water resources. This could affect the air quality and land-conservation efforts. At the Piedmont community meeting, Julie Bolthouse who is a director of land for Piedmont Environmental Council warned, “We’re basically going into an energy crisis if we continue to go in the direction we’re currently headed in Virginia.” Amazon building so many data centers in Virginia