From Nathan Dombeck

Janesville

To the Editor:

A darkly funny newsletter by famed climate activist Bill McKibben went out this week, and it strikes a little too close to home. In it, Bill details how Jeff Bezos, mega-yacht aficionado and big-tech-bro extraordinaire, purchased naming rights to a new hockey rink in Seattle in 2020; being 2020, there was some momentum around environmental issues, so he named it ‘Climate Pledge’ Arena, with the name to serve as a reminder of Amazon’s pledge to be net-zero by 2040 (and the arena itself to be purportedly carbon neutral).

Fast-forward to 2026, and you can see why I added quotation marks around ‘Climate Pledge’. The company’s own ‘sustainability report’ issued two months ago notes that Amazon’s emissions rose 16% in 2025. While claiming the goal of reducing emissions from their core shipping/selling business, the energy needs of AI and construction materials for data centers drove most of the increase.

Meanwhile, Jeff Bezo’s net worth is estimated at north of 366$ billion, and he doesn’t hesitate to flaunt it. Amazon is profiting off the back of technology most people don’t want — at the expense of your air, water, and land — and attempting to greenwash it all in the bargain. Quite the climate pledge, indeed.