Bitcoin’s Environmental Damage Equal to That of Beef, Natural Gas, and Oil, New Study Finds

Bitcoin’s environmental damage is equal to that of beef, natural gas, and oil, according to a new study published in Scientific Reports.

Source: Guardian News/YouTube

The study found that the environmental cost of producing bitcoin is among some of the least environmentally friendly industries like animal agriculture and fossil fuels.

Bitcoin’s enormous energy usage is mostly due to the “mining” process, which involves the use of specialized computers to solve increasingly more complex, and thus, energy-draining, algorithms. The energy-intensive computer process emits a large amount of carbon dioxide.

According to researchers, between 2016 and 2021, the average climate damage of each bitcoin that was mined was 35 percent of its market value. This number rose to almost 60 percent between 2020 and 2021. These numbers have earned bitcoin a place in the list of the most environmentally unfriendly industries like beef production.

Source: Vox/YouTube

Researchers estimate that the global climate damages of bitcoin between 2016 and 2021 are estimated to be $12 billion, and carbon emissions have increased 126-fold over that amount of time. Studies have estimated that bitcoin mining used more energy than in countries like Austria or Portugal.

Read more about the environmental impacts of bitcoin in One Green Planet. Raise your voice against Climate change and buy one of these empowering climate change tees.

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