Trucks near a warehouse in San Bernardino County, California | Image: Wes Reel / The Verge
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…