New research estimates that the 34 largest Bitcoin mining operations in the United States consumed more electricity in 2022 than all of Los Angeles combined. 85% of the electricity came from fossil fuels and exposed 1.9 million Americans to more than 0.1 μg/m3 of additional PM2.5 pollution.

[u/shiruken]

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58287-3

[u/ArchaicBrainWorms]

Jevon's Paradox: gains in efficiency of utilizing a resource lead to increased consumption of said resource.

It's why strides in solar technology haven't reduced fossil fuel consumption. As the price of new, cleaner, tech gets competitive with the old, dirtier, tech we seldom replace the old with the new; we simply use both as cost effective options unless coerced via regulation.

We've made great strides environmentally since I was a kid. I grew up in the sticks of northern appalachia and 40 years ago was a it was a very different place. Everybody burned all their burnable trash. People heated with coal. Every chunk of land had a garbage dump dating to the original land grant and used oil was burned or buried.

We've done a remarkable job of addressing the visible stuff, but I fear the less apparent externalities of our consumption is going to be what does us in

[u/hornswoggled111 → u/ArchaicBrainWorms]

Jevons Paradox with energy seems to happen but only up to the point we reach saturation. Beef is half price! We buy more.

And one of the other interesting factors with energy is that we got more energy efficient. We have generally been using less energy per capita in developed countries.

I say this because naysayers use the paradox as a lazy argument not to finish the transition.

[u/stu54 → u/hornswoggled111]

Jevons Paradox is practically the same as the Malthusian theory, just a little harder to debunk because industrialization is newer.