Amazon employees are striking against climate change

Climate change is a hot-button issue. From students to politicians, people everywhere are standing up to the widespread inaction over the planet's rapidly warming temperatures.

There are around 65,000 corporate and tech Amazon employees in the U.S., and now 941 of them — comparatively a small number, but growing — have added their names to this list.

Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group of Amazon workers who came together in Dec. 2018 to push for the development of a company-wide climate change plan, are demanding that the tech giant lower its climate emissions to zero by 2030. They will show their support by walking out of work on Sep. 20 at 11:30 PST.

These employees will be joining youth and workers in different sectors on this day for a global climate strike, spurred by the millions of students who are protesting complicity to climate change.

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The walkout is a reaction to Amazon's dealings with the fossil fuel industry, including the company's funding of $15,000 to the climate change-denying think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The group is also calling on Amazon to stop funding politicians and lobbyists who deny climate change and to discontinue their work with oil and gas companies, which use Amazon’s artificial intelligence technology, such as advanced machine learning, to accelerate oil and gas extraction.

"Amazon's business contributes to the climate crisis. Communities around Amazon Warehouses, like the Inland Empire in California, have elevated rates of asthma and respirator disease because of the fossil-fuel powered vehicles that drive thousands of times each day," said Sarah Read, a member of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

Amazon states they are committed to sustainability efforts.

“Playing a significant role in helping to reduce the sources of human-induced climate change is an important commitment for Amazon. We have dedicated sustainability teams who have been working for years on initiatives to reduce our environmental impact. Earlier this year, we announced Shipment Zero - Amazon’s vision to make all Amazon shipments net zero carbon, with 50% of all shipments net zero by 2030," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to Mashable.

But Shipment Zero might not make a huge difference in the fight against climate change. Amazon's rate of growth could make the 50 percent net zero shipments goal negligible, as Amazon's future emissions could be greater than current levels, the Amazon workers' group said in their walkout announcement.

This is the tech industry's first walkout over climate change, according to Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.