This is alarming ,it may not be that dangerous because we can't see the larger picture of the situation. Energy consumption in this year is continuing to rise up regardless of the price of BTC. 0.5% of world ENERGY is expected to be consume only by bitcoin. But the ideology of many people is "it is worth it as long as we get profit out of it" Yes it is correct that we get money out of it, but, will the environment be in danger for these? Well, Bitcoin mining can double a countrys electricity consumption and putting pressure on its infrastructure.
.5% is really not that big they just compared it to the whole power needs of Austria to make it look bigger or much more important, but if you look at other power hungry things such as factories of multinational corporations or fleets of cars they have you know that they are consuming more just to earn billions, compared to individual miners who some of them just wants to get out from poverty. The article is really targeting a minor group compared to what is really depleting our resources, which of course is the top 1% of the Earth.