I don't see Bitcoin being influenced by external parties here. Well, not too much. We should be adapting, and trying to fit within the world for our own benefit though, and while I guess there was influence on this happening, its probably for the better.
Elon Musk withdrawing his support for Bitcoin after he supposedly found out that Bitcoin isn't clean is in a sense an external influence. Problem here is that he
shouldn't be unaware of the environmental impacts of mining in the first place. Being critical of Bitcoin after he openly invested a billion dollars is questionable, either he is outright ignorant or has a certain agenda.
If we can prove that miners are using green energy instead of fossil fuels, it means that's one less attack vector that the news, and governments can use against us. We would actually be better than most industries that people use on the daily.
I'm all for improvement, regardless of the influencing factors.
You can't. Majority of the miners are not included in the set of miners that were supposedly included. Miners will use renewable energy if it makes sense; namely lower costs or being located in a suitable geographical location. Having less than 20% of the miners openly state that they're only using renewable energy is hardly helping, media will still perceive it as a frivolous use of electricity that could otherwise be used for other more productive purposes.
Derived carbon footprint from the electrical usage is not the only environmental impact Bitcoin mining has. Not sure why everyone is putting so much emphasis on that.