TheVoiceOfJoyce Whole towns, near the Port of Los Angeles, have become logistics hubs for the Nations largest online distributors , FedEx, UPS and they’re crowding out the existing Hispanic and Black populations. Why is planning for these mega structures, non existent ? Are the people being compensated for their loss of identity and health? Why should the original communities suffer from an onslaught of dirty 18 wheelers? Why aren’t all fleets transporting goods , required to be electric? Why allow traffic and diesel fuels into a rural community, without creating a buffer zone for commercial space? In California, where environmental concerns and protections are Regulated, why isn’t the Warehousing industry regulated for emissions, too? Why are these warehouse communities a blight on the American landscape, when with planning, they could have been sequestered away from residential areas? Are only the poor and middle class communities subjected to the tyranny of their local council’s decisions ? Why is their health for sale? At this point, who is responsible for damage control? In 2023, can these societal inequities be resolved?

Posted on by jaslvr

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/29/e-commerce-warehouses-amazon-ups-fedex-california-pollution

Over the past decade, warehouses for online retailers as well as logistics and distribution companies such as Amazon, UPS and FedEx have reshaped southern California’s landscape. To satiate a growing hunger for one-click, doorstep delivery, colossal structures to store and sort our online orders have risen across the region.

Mobile classrooms sit against a warehouse backdrop in Bloomington.

About 1,100 warehouses have been constructed since 2010, encompassing more than 12,500 acres, according to a data tool developed by researchers at the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College and Radical Research LLC. The data, shared exclusively with the Guardian, for the first time maps this sprawl of warehouses across the region and estimates their impact on the local environment.

It reveals that:

Overall, there are about 9,500 warehouses in the region with a footprint above one acre.

Each day, more than 1m truck trips out of these warehouses cloud the air with 1,450lbs of toxic diesel particulate pollution and 164,000lbs of nitrogen oxide pollution, which are linked to health problems including respiratory conditions.

The trucks also emit just under 100m lbs of carbon dioxide each day.

Across the region, about 340 school campuses are located within 1,000ft of a warehouse property line.

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