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Today is Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting. Nearly 7,700 Amazon employees signed their name publicly asking Bezos and the board to adopt our climate change resolution. Employees want to LEAD on the climate crisis.
After nearly 8,000 Amazon employees signed a letter asking CEO Jeff Bezos to enact a comprehensive company-wide climate plan, they were hoping to make their case and speak to their boss at the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting. Instead, they were blown off. As Business Week explained,
“Amazon employee Emily Cunningham, one of the organizers of the climate proposal, stood up to introduce it to the other shareholders at the meeting. Her voice shook as she started to speak, she said. And her first question was, where’s our boss, Jeff Bezos? She asked him to come out on stage so she could “speak to him directly.” The event moderator shrugged her off, saying that Bezos would be out later. When asked if Bezos would be able to hear the employees’ proposal, an awkward silence hung over the proceedings until the MC curtly responded: “I assume so.“”
Why This Matters: Even though shareholders ended up voting down the climate proposal, this is a big shift for tech workers who been historically hesitant to speak out, are becoming more willing to serve as corporate activists and weigh in on the moral and ethical decisions of the firms that employ them, as Vox explained. Amazon has been criticized recently for its courting of fossil fuel companies for business and its employees are stepping up pressure on their employer to act as a responsible corporate citizen. While they didn’t succeed today, they’re continuing to organize through a new Twitter account and aren’t planning on giving up any time soon.
“You can’t find a Utahn who doesn’t really care about clean air and clean water.” @RepJohnCurtis said his goal is to find ways “to make them feel more comfortable [politically] talking about it.” @LeeDavi49903322 #climate https://t.co/jVpPBJq0GE — CCL Salt Lake City (@CCLsaltlake) February 19, 2021 By Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer Representative John Curtis of […]
Climate change is the biggest threat facing the world, and yesterday’s United Nations Security Council meeting was focused on the topic. United States climate envoy John Kerry, who participated in the virtual meeting, warned that ignoring the crisis and its threats to global security would mean “marching forward to what is almost tantamount to a mutual suicide pact.”
Why this Matters: Global food security, poverty rates, and public health are all negatively impacted by climate change. These destabilizing forces are already driving people to migrate and shifting power balances on the international stage.
On Friday, the U.S. officially rejoined the Paris Agreement on climate change. Just under one month into his term, President Biden has officially reversed one major element of Trump’s intended legacy, and climate officials across the globe are welcoming our nation back with open arms.
Why This Matters: The last four years proved to be a disaster for the climate.
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