Over 1,000 Amazon employees just signed an open letter to CEO Andy Jassy calling out the company’s “all-costs-justified, warp-speed approach to AI development.”
Tech workers don’t usually speak up like this. But when I dug into what they’re saying, I understood why they did.
This connects to something I talk about constantly: the hidden cost of convenience.
The Water You Don’t See
Amazon plans to spend $150 billion building new data centers for AI.
A large data center consumes up to 5 million gallons of water per day. That’s equivalent to a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Loudoun County, Virginia has over 200 data centers. Freshwater consumption there has increased by 250% since 2019. Residents face drought-like conditions.
Amazon Employees for Climate Justice point to internal briefings showing Amazon expects a ten-fold increase in data-center demand by 2027—while promoting only a 9% reduction in water usage.
One employee called it “such a drop in the bucket.” They’re not wrong.
The Emissions Math Doesn’t Add Up
In 2019, Amazon committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2040.
Since that pledge, the company’s emissions have grown 35%.
From 2023 to 2024 alone, total carbon emissions rose from 64.38 million metric tons to 68.25 million metric tons. That’s a 6% increase in a single year.
Where are these data centers? Many sit in drought-stressed regions where their energy demands force utility companies to keep coal plants running.
More than 70% of Amazon data centers run on electricity from gas or coal. Amazon uses renewable energy credits to “match” consumption, but here’s the problem: employees say the company purchased credits for existing renewables that would have been used anyway.
It’s greenwashing with paperwork. A Nature study confirmed that renewable energy certificates lead to inflated estimates of corporate emissions mitigation.
What 14,000 Layoffs Buy You
Amazon confirmed it would lay off around 14,000 corporate staff. The reason? “Remove layers and increase ownership” as part of a push toward AI, cloud systems, and automation.
CEO Andy Jassy warned staff that generative AI and “agents” will reduce demand for many roles.
Workers say they’re being pushed to use AI to raise productivity. One software engineer said managers expect teams to “do twice as much work because of AI tools”—an expectation they called unrealistic.
I’ve seen this pattern before. Rapid deployment. Rising resource consumption. Job displacement. Zero accountability.
The Cross-Industry Signal
Over 2,400 supporters from Google, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft have joined the Amazon letter—senior engineers, product leaders, marketing staff, and warehouse workers.
This is one of the largest cross-company tech worker movements on AI governance and climate impact.
The employees are asking for specific actions:
Power data centers with 100% renewable energy
Prohibit AI use in violence, surveillance, or mass deportations
Establish worker-led bodies with authority over AI deployment and related layoffs
The stakes? By 2030, the current rate of AI growth would put 24 to 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. That’s like adding 5 to 10 million cars to US roads.
Data center electricity consumption is expected to hit 1,050 terawatt-hours by 2026—making data centers the fifth-largest electricity consumer globally, between Japan and Russia.
What This Means for the Rest of Us
I write about waste reduction because packaging and containers make up 29.7% of trash in our landfills.
The waste we can’t see—the water consumed, the emissions released, the resources extracted to power our digital lives—dwarfs anything in our household bins.
Amazon employees want a “slower, more accountable rollout” with environmental safeguards, transparency, and worker input. They want accountability before the infrastructure becomes too big to change.
The letter warns this approach will do “staggering damage to democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth.”
They’re right.
Every time we use AI tools, stream videos, or store files in “the cloud,” we’re drawing from the same wells that communities like Loudoun County depend on. We’re contributing to the same emissions crisis we’re trying to solve with our reusable bags and compost bins.
The technology we use every day isn’t free. Someone, somewhere, is paying the price—with their water, their air, their jobs.
Maybe it’s time we started asking who.
