https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/7xmvbq/bitcoin-energy-science-world-electricity-demandNow Motherboard is not the best source for news, but let's consider the implications of this...
Consuming immense amounts of energy is actually somewhat counterproductive if we consider the vision of Bitcoin giving us tools for independence. And it's somewhat unethical because we should not be using more than we need on this earth.
However, we don't really know how much energy it is consuming at this stage, so this could just be another reporter trying to find a story.
I agree with you "we should not use more than we need on this earth". And the improvement of bitcoin is growing so fast, obviously it is consuming much more energy. In other hand, we cannot avoid the improvement of bitcoin. Therefore, it needs for any authority or stakeholder to create and make a regulation about bitcoin and blockchain technology. Hopefully, it will be better and minimize the energy usage of it. Recently, we have never seen that government or any authority that concern about it. It always seems that all government against and avoid it. It will be more awesome creating a regulation rather than ban and against bitcoin.