Why environmentalists are fighting Bitcoin miners
14 May 2021
Avi Asher-Schapiro,
Reuters
In mid-April, nearly 150 local environmentalists marched to the gates of Greenidge Generation, a Bitcoin mining facility in upstate New York, in a last-ditch effort to block its expansion.
Their objection: that the creation of the cryptocurrency, an energy-intensive process in which computers compete to solve mathematical puzzles, may harm efforts to limit global warming. Three days later, the planning board in the small town of Torrey voted 4-1 to allow Greenidge Generation to more than double the number of machines it has mining Bitcoin .
“Everything we want to do to fight climate change could be erased,” Yvonne Taylor, one of the march’s leaders, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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LOS ANGELES (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In mid-April, nearly 150 local environmentalists marched to the gates of Greenidge Generation, a bitcoin mining facility in upstate New York, in a last-ditch effort to block its expansion.
FILE PHOTO: A representation of virtual currency Bitcoin is seen in front of a stock graph in this illustration taken January 8, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
Their objection: that the creation of the cryptocurrency, an energy-intensive process in which computers compete to solve mathematical puzzles, may harm efforts to limit global warming.
Three days later, the planning board in the small town of Torrey voted 4-1 to allow Greenidge Generation to more than double the number of machines it has mining bitcoin.
FEATURE-U.S. small towns take on energy-guzzling bitcoin miners Reuters 2 hrs ago Bitcoin miners clash with environment groups in the U.S.
Popular Searches Montana town becomes first to regulate crypto climate impact
By Avi Asher-Schapiro
LOS ANGELES, May 13 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In mid-April, nearly 150 local environmentalists marched to the gates of Greenidge Generation, a bitcoin mining facility in upstate New York, in a last-ditch effort to block its expansion.
Their objection: that the creation of the cryptocurrency, an energy-intensive process in which computers compete to solve mathematical puzzles, may harm efforts to limit global warming.
Three days later, the planning board in the small town of Torrey voted 4-1 to allow Greenidge Generation to more than double the number of machines it has mining bitcoin.
Bitcoin is still down nearly 10% over the 24 HOURS since Elon Musk announced Tesla would no longer take cryptocurrency because of the environmental impact of mining it
The price of Bitcoin is still down nearly 10 percent over a 24 hours period in the wake of Elon Musk s announcement about Tesla not accepting the crypto
Musk made an abrupt turn-about on Wednesday when he revealed Tesla will no longer accept Bitcoin as payment for his cars
His revelation saw the coin s price wipe off an estimated $365 billion from the entire cryptocurrency market at its lowest
Musk has insisted that Tesla, which invested $1.5B in Bitcoin in February, will not be selling any of it despite saying the coin would no longer be accepted
11 May 2021
An unavoidable graphic has been doing the rounds on social media – it purports to show the remarkable failure of forecasts of rapid renewable energy growth over the past few decades. Each forecast seems to optimistically project a massive upwards swing of renewable energy, and each has failed to be realised in the actual growth of renewable energy in America.
It was published in JP Morgan’s ‘Annual Energy Paper‘, a major project overseen by the well-known economist and author Vaclav Smil. Smil is a skeptic of the idea that any transition away from fossil fuels will be fast; he cites previous historical examples of transitions, each particularly slow, and presents that as proof this one will be slow, too.