Lemmy.org
  • Communities
  • Create Post
  • Create Community
  • heart
    Support Lemmy
  • search
    Search
  • Login
  • Sign Up
cm0002@lemmy.world to United States | News & Politics@midwest.social · 2 months ago

The environmental burden of the United States’ bitcoin mining boom

www.nature.com

external-link
message-square
1
fedilink
  • cross-posted to:
  • [email protected]
  • [email protected]
17
external-link

The environmental burden of the United States’ bitcoin mining boom

www.nature.com

cm0002@lemmy.world to United States | News & Politics@midwest.social · 2 months ago
message-square
1
fedilink
  • cross-posted to:
  • [email protected]
  • [email protected]
The environmental burden of the United States’ bitcoin mining boom | Nature Communications
www.nature.com
external-link
Bitcoin mines—massive computing clusters generating cryptocurrency tokens—consume vast amounts of electricity. The amount of fine particle (PM2.5) air pollution created because of their electricity consumption and its effect on environmental health is pending. In this study, we located the 34 largest mines in the United States in 2022, identified the electricity-generating plants that responded to them, and pinpointed communities most harmed by Bitcoin mine-attributable air pollution. From mid-2022 to mid-2023, the 34 mines consumed 32.3 terawatt-hours of electricity—33% more than Los Angeles—85% of which came from fossil fuels. We estimated that 1.9 million Americans were exposed to ≥0.1 μg/m3 of additional PM2.5 pollution from Bitcoin mines, often hundreds of miles away from the communities they affected. Americans living in four regions—including New York City and near Houston—were exposed to the highest Bitcoin mine-attributable PM2.5 concentrations (≥0.5 μg/m3) with the greatest health risks. The paper maps air pollution from power plants supplying electricity to US Bitcoin mines. It finds that 1.9 million people in 2022-2023 breathed toxic amounts of Bitcoin mine attributable pollution, particularly around New York City and Houston.
alert-triangle
You must log in or register to comment.
  • TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    No shit

United States | News & Politics@midwest.social

usa@midwest.social

Subscribe from Remote Instance

Create a post
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]

Welcome to [email protected], where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.

If you’re interested in participating, please subscribe.

Rules

Be respectful and civil. No racism/bigotry/hateful speech.

Post anything related to the United States.

Visibility: Public
globe

This community can be federated to other instances and be posted/commented in by their users.

  • 1.18K users / day
  • 2.72K users / week
  • 6.03K users / month
  • 10.4K users / 6 months
  • 7 local subscribers
  • 2.95K subscribers
  • 2.69K Posts
  • 10.5K Comments
  • Modlog
  • mods:
  • simsym@midwest.social
  • Type 1 [Missouri]@midwest.social
  • BE: 0.19.8
  • Modlog
  • Instances
  • Docs
  • Code
  • join-lemmy.org