It is 2019, there are climate protests nearly every day all around the world. Meanwhile bitcoin is consuming more energy than a small country
Two things to keep in mind:
First, consider that
Bitcoin mining largely runs on clean/renewable energy sources like wind, solar and hydropower:
CoinShares says bitcoin network gets 74.1 percent of its electricity from renewables, making it more renewables-driven than almost every other large-scale industry in the world.
Second, power stations always generate electricity beyond real demand to maintain grid reliability. Industrial Bitcoin miners can and do make
load balancing agreements with power generators to consume already-generated electricity at discounted prices. A non-zero portion of the hash rate is not increasing net electricity consumption.