Amazonâs Bristol distribution centre at Avonmouth is being blockaded by climate activists today, âBlack Fridayâ, as part of an international campaign targeting the mega-retailer.

Extinction Rebellion activists from Bristol and the south west moved onto the Avonmouth site at 4am this morning, and have âlocked onâ to bamboo towers and scaffolding structures blocking two access roads to the site.
Thirteen Amazon âfulfilment centresâ around the UK, together with Amazon centres in Europe, are being roadblocked, with the aim of disrupting Amazonâs business and forcing the corporation to change its highly climate-destructive corporate practices.
In 2018 Amazonâs own research [1] showed that its activities were responsible for emitting 44.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents into the atmosphere â roughly equal to the annual emissions of Norway.
In 2019 Amazon pledged to be a net zero carbon emitter by 2040. But there is no evidence for how that goal will be achieved and the pledge does not include Amazonâs supply chain, which accounts for up to 75% of its emissions.
In 2020 the corporationâs carbon emissions increased by a further 19%, to 60.64 million metric tonnes: the same as Austria.[2]
Extinction Rebellion Rebel Elder activist, Gaie Delap, 74, from Montpelier, Bristol says:
âInternational businesses of this scale cannot be allowed to be laws unto themselves. Their leaders bear the same responsibility as national governments.
âWe all understand that this kind of super-consumption is unnecessary and destructive. And a growing number of businesses are distancing themselves from Black Friday, a day that will contribute to a surge in vehicle and carbon emissions. [3]
âTwo weeks after the end of COP26 it is truly shocking that Amazon is actively promoting Black Friday.[4] This is a US âshopping holidayâ which Amazon itself introduced into the UK in 2010.
âWe will not achieve the radical reductions in carbon emissions that COP26 clearly showed are necessary by just continuing âbusiness as usualâ.
âIf we want to save the Amazon rainforest, we have to target mega-retailer Amazon.â
A major UK investigation [5] in 2021 showed that Amazon routinely destroys millions of items of unsold stock every year, products that are often new and unused.
In September 2019 Amazon employees in Seattle went on strike over the corporationâs lack of action on the climate crisis. In January 2020 hundreds of Amazon US employees defied a ban on talking publicly about the companyâs practices to call on Amazon to do more to fight climate change. [6]
Amazon actively assists fossil fuel companies Shell, Exxon and BP to drill for more oil via its Amazon Web Services. [7] [8]
At the UK blockade locations, including Avonmouth, protest banners displaying âAmazon Crimeâ, âInfinite growth, Finite planetâ and âMake Amazon Payâ [9] draw attention to Amazonâs contribution to the destruction of the planet and its damaging business practices.
FURTHER INFORMATION
MAKE AMAZON PAY CAMPAIGN: Quote from campaign website: âOn Black Friday 26 November 2021, from oil refineries, to factories, to warehouses, to data centres, to corporate offices in countries across the world, workers and activists are rising up in strikes, protests and actions to Make Amazon Pay.â
DENIAL OF WORKERSâ RIGHTS: Ethical Consumer magazine, which has called for a boycott of Amazon, identifies examples of Amazonâs bad working practices with âreports of impossible nine-second-per-package targets; pervasive worker surveillance in warehouses; pregnant employees having to stand for 10 hours at a time; repeated worker injuries; and employees having to urinate in bottles for fear of taking breaks.â [10]
TAX AVOIDANCE: Amazonâs key UK business paid just ÂŁ3.8m more corporation tax in 2020 than in 2019, even as sales increased by ÂŁ1.89bn. [11]
REFERENCES
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/30/amazon-says-carbon-emissions-rose-19percent-in-2020.html
[2] Country emissions data: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions
[3] https://fashionunited.com/news/retail/black-friday-has-a-carbon-emissions-problem/2020111336476
[4] https://www.amazon.co.uk/blackfriday/
[6] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/27/amazon-workers-climate-protest
[9] https://makeamazonpay.com/
[10] https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycott-amazon?platform=hootsuite
Source: Xrbristol.org.uk