August 8, 20251 min

Amazon deliveries are often better for the environment than driving to buy the stuff in a store

If you often drive to buy things, getting things delivered to your house will often be better for the climate, unless you’re buying a ton of stuff at once at a store that’s close by. Driving is just so uniquely bad for the climate compared to everything else we do that we shouldn’t be surprised by this.

Andy Masley outlines the environmental impact of getting things delivered to your door from Amazon vs. driving to the store to do so.

A few things are at work here, I think:

Most people never really seriously consider conterfactuals.
The efficiency of modern logistics and supply chains is vastly underestimated (see also discussions about eating local).
Climate claims that take seriously logistical efficiency are not aesthetically aligned with the preferences of many inclined to make climate claims.
(🔥) Climate arguments are a socially acceptable way to criticize things that are also disliked for non-climate reasons.

On the last point, also see Masley’s piece Why using ChatGPT is not bad for the environment - a cheat sheet.

Related: Quantification bias.