This article explains how Bitcoin, a type of cryptocurrency, consumes a tremendous amount of energy.
It also questions Tesla's recent investment in Bitcoin, which seems to contradict its environmental stance.
The article includes a short video about how cryptocurrency works.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The article provides students with an example of the impacts of personal choices.
The article and video can be used together or separately.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should know how to read a bar graph.
Differentiation
Students can brainstorm possible solutions to this issue, including government regulations, economic disincentives, or technological advancements.
Cross-curricular connections can be made with math classes by using the graph from the article to teach about bar graphs and effective data visualization.
Economics classes can use this resource to explore the unintended consequences of economic decisions.
Scientist Notes
This resource evaluates energy consumption from operating bitcoin as compared with Countries who consume terrawats of electricity, this is a good finding from Cambridge researchers as data in the chart depicts that using Bitcoin consumes more energy than Argentina, though data in the chat is not sufficient to infer the potency of Bitocin impact on climate in the future especially when the world is working towards a net zero emission in 2050, operationalizing bitcoin can undermine this target, thus, this resource is good to guide policy makers to achieve 100% clean energy while slowing down the value for bitcoin or cryptocurrency applications. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.1.6-8 Explain how economic decisions affect the well-being of individuals, businesses, and society.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.6 Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.
