Science
E-commerce is driving up pollution near warehouses
The data is in, and it shows a significant rise in air pollution where e-retailers build their warehouses, and the neighborhoods hit the hardest have more people of color living in them.
Warehouses have mushroomed across the US with the rise of e-commerce — creeping closer to Americans’ homes and becoming more common than office buildings. They’re there to store, sort, and send off packages that wind up at our doorsteps seemingly out of thin air. In reality, that flurry of activity sends fleets of trucks and delivery vehicles through communities, affecting neighborhoods closest to warehouses the most.
“I would argue that it’s a very meaningful, impactful amount.”
The first nationwide study of its kind linked truck traffic from warehouses to an increase in an air pollutant called nitrogen dioxide. Nitrogen dioxide is a key ingredient in smog and, on its own, can aggravate respiratory diseases, including asthma. Neighborhoods downwind of warehouses, less than 5 miles (roughly 7 kilometers) away, experienced a nearly 20 percent increase in NO2 pollution compared to neighborhoods upwind of warehouses.
“I would argue that it’s a very meaningful, impactful amount [of NO2 pollution],” says lead study author Gaige Kerr, an assistant research professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. The spike in pollution is essentially equivalent to wiping out several years’ worth of efforts to improve air quality under the Clean Air Act, according to Kerr. (Kerr also serves as a consultant for the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, the Department of Justice, and the California Air Resources Board.)
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, encompasses the locations of nearly 150,000 large warehouses across the contiguous US gathered from a commercial database. They found a 117 percent increase in the total number of new warehouses built between 2010 and 2021. And compared to older warehouses, newly constructed facilities are bigger — with far more loading docks and parking spaces to accommodate more vehicles around the clock. Clusters of warehouses also became more common — crowding out residents in some towns, The Verge has previously reported. Truck traffic and NO2 pollution increased with the number of loading docks and parking spaces.
Communities of color are particularly vulnerable to air pollution from warehouse traffic, the researchers found. The proportion of Asian and Hispanic residents was close to 290 percent and 240 percent higher, respectively, in areas with the most warehouses compared to the median nationwide. Notably, just 10 counties in California, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Arizona, and Ohio were home to 20 percent of all the warehouses.
A big breakthrough in satellite remote sensing enabled a closer look at nitrogen dioxide for this study. There aren’t enough ground sensors for NO2 in the US to capture differences in pollution levels from block to block. But the study authors were able to gather data on nitrogen dioxide in 2021 from a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite instrument that takes daily readings as it orbits around the planet.
That gives scientists and health advocates an unprecedented look at tailpipe pollution surrounding warehouses. But it might still lead to an underestimate of the problem, the study notes. The satellite takes readings once a day in the afternoon, local time. But warehouse traffic tends to peak in the morning. The researchers are hopeful that a new satellite instrument from NASA, launched last year to monitor air pollution, could provide even more precise data. Unlike the ESA satellite, NASA’s instrument will stay in geostationary orbit to take hourly readings over North America. (NASA funded the study published today.)
Neighborhood activists have fought for years to stop warehouses from being built too close to homes and have called on e-retailers to switch to electric vehicles to alleviate pollution. They’ve also pushed some local regulators to consider regulating emissions near warehouses more similarly to factories or other industrial facilities with smokestacks. Warehouses have been a blind spot for many regulators in the past because the buildings themselves don’t create pollution — they attract pollution from trucks, trains, and cargo planes. But a growing body of research like this study is helping to make the potential environmental and health costs of e-commerce more clear.
Science
NASA wants SpaceX and Blue Origin to deliver cargo to the moon
The agency wants Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use its Starship cargo lander to deliver a pressurized rover to the Moon “no earlier” than 2032, while Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will be tasked with delivering a lunar surface habitat no sooner than 2033. Both launches will support NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to bring humans back to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.
Both companies are developing human landing systems for Artemis missions — SpaceX for Artemis III and Blue Origin for Artemis V. NASA later asked both companies to develop cargo-hauling variants of those landers, capable of carrying 26,000 to 33,000 pounds of equipment and other materials to the Moon.
NASA says it will issue proposals to SpaceX and Blue Origin at the beginning of next year.
“Having two lunar lander providers with different approaches for crew and cargo landing capability provides mission flexibility while ensuring a regular cadence of Moon landings for continued discovery and scientific opportunity,” Stephen D. Creech, NASA’s assistant deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars program, said in the announcement.
Science
Brazil leads new international effort against climate lies
Brazil and the United Nations launched a new international effort to combat disinformation on climate change. They announced the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change during the G20 Leaders’ Summit taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
It’s a collaboration between governments and international organizations to boost research on misinformation swirling online and around the globe that they fear could slow action on climate change. There isn’t much information available yet, but they say they’ll fund nonprofit efforts to counter that spread of lies.
“Countries cannot tackle this problem individually,” President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in a press release.
“Countries cannot tackle this problem individually.”
Only Chile, Denmark, France, Morocco, the United Kingdom, and Sweden have joined Brazil in the initiative so far. Countries that make the commitment are expected to contribute to a fund administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The initial goal is to get more countries on board and raise $10 to 15 million over the next three years. The money is then supposed to be distributed to nonprofit organizations as grants to support research and public awareness campaigns on climate disinformation.
They haven’t yet named any specific groups they plan to work with; “calls for partnerships” are forthcoming. Some environmental organizations are already working together to study disinformation and push for measures to stop its spread, like the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition that publishes reports on misinformation trends and advocates for more stringent content moderation.
A webpage for the new global initiative says environmental disinformation is “increasingly spreading through social media, messaging apps, and generative AI.” That has “serious” consequences, it says: “it undermines scientific consensus, obstructs authorities’ ability to respond effectively to the crisis, and threatens the safety of journalists and environmental defenders working on the frontlines.”
FEMA employees faced violent threats on social media in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in the US, for example. Accounts spewing misinformation about the storm and FEMA were also tied to content denying climate change, according to an analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) in October. Posts baselessly accused FEMA of seizing private property and confiscating donations — lies that risked deterring storm survivors from applying for assistance, and that raised fears that FEMA staff might face attacks.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also voiced his concerns during remarks today with both the G20 summit and a UN conference on climate change currently underway. “We must also take on climate disinformation,” Guterres said. “Our climate is at a breaking point.”
Science
Amazon and SpaceX attack US labor watchdog in court
Amazon and SpaceX are seeking to hamstring the National Labor Relations Board, asking a court to declare its processes for upholding labor law unconstitutional. But judges on a three-person panel appeared skeptical when the companies presented their arguments Monday.
In two separate cases before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the two companies argued that the NLRB is unlawfully forcing them to participate in administrative law proceedings over alleged anti-labor actions. The Amazon case centers around whether it’s required to bargain with the union at its JFK 8 fulfillment center on Staten Island, while the SpaceX case involves a charge by former employees who claimed they were fired after being critical of CEO Elon Musk.
A ruling in favor of the companies could undermine the NLRB’s power to enforce protections for workers. It comes just as vocal pro-union President Joe Biden is leaving office and deregulation-friendly President-elect Donald Trump takes over. Trump notably counts Musk among his chief allies after his massive fundraising push. The NLRB is an independent agency with five board members appointed by the president to 5-year terms.
During oral arguments, the judges mostly prodded attorneys on the finer points of the companies’ decisions to appeal, and the timeline of their objections. At one point, Judge James Graves Jr., an Obama appointee, expressed doubt that Amazon had even met the conditions for an appeal — suggesting it should have waited on the ruling from the district court first. Two days after Amazon’s notice of appeal, the district court denied Amazon’s request for a temporary restraining order on its NLRB proceedings.
Both companies are seeking to short-circuit the NLRB’s proceedings with a court order
George W. Bush-appointed Judge Priscilla Richman similarly pressed SpaceX’s counsel Michael Kenneally about why the company rushed to an appeal, rather than letting the case progress in a lower court. Kenneally said SpaceX waited as long as it felt it could to bring its challenge and accused the government of leaning on procedural arguments because it couldn’t defend the NLRB’s constitutionality. Graves appeared skeptical. “That sounds to me about like the argument that, ‘well, procedure doesn’t matter if I win on the merits, so just skip right over procedure,’” he said.
Both companies are seeking to short-circuit the NLRB’s proceedings with a court order, which requires demonstrating this would cause them irreparable harm. But in Amazon’s case, NLRB counsel Tyler Wiese called the company’s deadline for the district court “imaginary,” and said, “merely proceeding through an administrative process is not irreparable harm.”
Amazon and SpaceX both argue that the NLRB’s administrative proceedings are tainted because its board members or administrative law judges are unconstitutionally insulated from removal. They point to Article II of the Constitution, which says the president must “take care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” which they say includes removing officials.
Amazon also says the NLRB is violating the Seventh Amendment, which protects the right to a jury trial in certain civil cases. It argues that the NLRB shouldn’t be allowed to decide on financial remedies related to the case because it would deny the company due process. Cox said the board itself “improperly interfered with the [union] election by exercising its prosecutorial authority,” so failing to stop the proceedings would let the NLRB as as judge and prosecutor.
The NLRB says it feels confident in a 1937 Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act. “It is nothing new for big companies to challenge the authority of the NLRB to enforce workers’ rights so as not to be held accountable for their violations of the National Labor Relations Act,” NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said in a statement. “While the current challenges require the NLRB to expend scarce resources defending against them, we’ve seen that the results of these kinds of challenges is ultimately a delay in justice, but that ultimately justice does prevail.”
-
Startup Stories1 year ago
Why Millennials, GenZs Are Riding The Investment Tech Wave In India
-
Startup Stories1 year ago
Startups That Caught Our Eyes In September 2023
-
Startup Stories1 year ago
How Raaho Is Using Tech To Transform India’s Fragmented Commercial Trucking
-
Startup Stories1 year ago
Meet The 10 Indian Startup Gems In The Indian Jewellery Industry’s Crown
-
Crptocurrency9 months ago
Lither is Making Crypto Safe, Fun, and Profitable for Everyone!
-
Startup Stories1 year ago
How Volt Money Is Unlocking The Value Of Mutual Funds With Secured Lending
-
E-commerce1 year ago
Top Online Couponing Trends To Watch Out For In 2016
-
Startup Stories1 year ago
Why Moscow-Based Kladana Considers Indian SME Sector As The Next Big Market For Cloud Computing