Big Tech's Carbon Footprint Surpasses Bitcoin Mining
The carbon footprint of Big Tech companies has surpassed that of Bitcoin mining in recent years. A recent study found that Amazon alone produces more carbon dioxide per year than all global Bitcoin mining.
Major U.S. tech firms started disclosing their emissions in 2019, and the data is startling. Since then, they have released more CO2 than Bitcoin has since 2014.
The exact carbon footprint of Bitcoin is difficult to calculate due to a lack of comprehensive power grid data from mining countries. However, estimates suggest that Bitcoin mining consumed 173.42 Terawatt hours of electricity in 2020-2021, exceeding Pakistan's energy use.
Another study estimated that Bitcoin mining produced 65.4 megatonnes of CO2 annually as of 2022, which is comparable to Greece's entire carbon footprint. Big Tech companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have reported significantly higher emissions in recent years, with Amazon alone releasing 71.54 million metric tons of CO2 in 2021.
The comparison between company reports and Bitcoin estimates is not entirely scientific, but it suggests that Big Tech's footprint is larger, even if exact numbers are unknown.