Amazon.com workers’ strike for climate, 20 September

By Jake Johnson in the USA:

Monday, September 09, 2019

Because ‘Everything Is on Fire‘, Nearly 1,000 Amazon Workers Pledge to Walk Out and Join Global Climate Strike on Sept. 20

“We understand the threat of the climate crisis and want to work for a company that makes climate a priority.”

To protest the retail behemoth’s contributions to the climate crisis and persistent refusal to change course, nearly 1,000 Amazon workers

Meanwhile, over 1,000.

have pledged to walk off the job on Sept. 20 in solidarity with the millions of people across the world expected to take part in this month’s global climate strike.

Wired reported Monday that the demonstration “will mark the first time in Amazon‘s 25-year history that workers at its Seattle headquarters have walked off the job.”

“Most of the workers who have signed on so far work in Seattle,” according to Wired, “but employees in other offices, including in Europe, have indicated an interest in the event as well.”

Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), the group that organized the walkout, outlined its core demands in a Medium post and urged Amazon workers around the world to join the demonstration.

In May, as Common Dreams reported, AECJ put forth a resolution at Amazon‘s annual shareholder meeting demanding a “company-wide climate plan” to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Amazon CEO and world’s richest man Jeff Bezos refused to emerge from backstage as his employees called on the mega-billionaire to back the resolution, which ultimately failed.

“As employees at one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world, our role in facing the climate crisis is to ensure our company is leading on climate, not following,” the group wrote on Monday. “We have to take responsibility for the impact that our business has on the planet and on people.”

To “demonstrate real climate leadership,” said AECJ, Amazon must commit to:

• Zero carbon emissions by 2030;
• Zero custom Amazon Web Services (AWS) contracts for fossil fuel companies to accelerate oil and gas extraction; and
• Zero funding for climate-denying lobbyists and politicians.

“Amazon has the resources and scale to spark the world’s imagination and redefine what is possible and necessary to address the climate crisis,” said AECJ. “Our walkout on September 20th demonstrates the commitment of Amazon employees and calls on leadership to join us in this commitment.”

As of this writing, over 940 Amazon employees have committed to taking part in the strike, a number that is expected to grow in the coming days.

We want Amazon to commit to zero emissions by 2030 and pilot electric vehicles first in communities most impacted by pollution. We should be leaders reaching zero first, not sliding in at the last moment.

Pledge to walk out with us: https://t.co/Ubcm6G2XWQ pic.twitter.com/vGmLIs9rnY

— Amazon Employees For Climate Justice (@AMZNforClimate) September 9, 2019

In a video, individual Amazon workers explained why they have decided to take part in this month’s climate strikes, which are set to take place in over 150 countries.

“I’m walking out September 20th because I feel climate change is the most imminent threat to humanity that we face as a whole today,” said an Amazon employee identified as Peter.

“Everything is on fire“, added Khushboo, “and it’s not fine.”

This 9 September 2019 video is called Why Amazon Employees are Walking Out on September 20th.

As Common Dreams reported last Friday, organizers say they have registered over 2,500 climate strikes across the globe, with more than 450 set to take place in the U.S. alone.

“It’s incredibly important that we show up and support the youth who are organizing this kind of thing,” Weston Fribley, a software engineer who has worked at Amazon for more than four years, told Wired. “I think it’s really important to show them, hey, you have allies in tech.”

‘World Has Never Seen a Threat to Human Rights of This Scope,’ UN Rights Chief Says of Climate Emergency. “The window of opportunity for action may be closing—but there is still time to act.” By Andrea Germanos.

“Hot and dry” are the watchwords for large fires. In just seconds, a spark in hot and dry conditions can set off an inferno consuming thick, dried-out vegetation and almost everything else in its path. While every fire needs a spark to ignite and fuel to burn, hot and dry conditions in the atmosphere play a significant role in determining the likelihood of a fire starting, its intensity and the speed at which it spreads. Over the past several decades, as the world has increasingly warmed, so has its potential to burn: here.