AbeBooks, owned by Amazon, is an online marketplace for rare and secondhand books. It markets itself as a haven for independent booksellers, but every transaction still runs through Amazon’s infrastructure and adds to its profits. Even in the niche world of collectible books, Amazon manages to extract value while tightening its grip on global commerce.
Amazon is rated High Impact because its harms are systemic and interlocking.
Environmental Harm: Delivery fleets, aviation cargo, and data centers generate massive emissions and plastic waste, while public pledges mask lobbying against climate regulation.
Human Rights Violations: Workers face surveillance, injury-level quotas, and unsafe delivery speeds. Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere face wage theft and coercion.
Military & Conflict Complicity: AWS is central to surveillance states. Project Nimbus embeds Amazon in Israel’s occupation and war crimes, supplying AI and data services to its military and government.
The result: consumer spending that powers a machine which entrenches inequality, accelerates climate collapse, and sustains state violence worldwide.
Your local secondhand bookstore.