As the digital age accelerates, the environmental impact of tech giants is surging, particularly due to the rise of generative AI technologies. Amazon’s carbon emissions alone surpass the global carbon footprint of Bitcoin mining.
Since 2019, when major U.S. tech corporations started reporting their emissions, they have collectively released more carbon dioxide than Bitcoin has since its inception in 2014.
**Bitcoin’s Environmental Impact:**
The total carbon emissions from Bitcoin mining worldwide are challenging to pinpoint. No team of researchers can claim complete access to the power usage and cost data across all Bitcoin mining nations. However, cost comparisons to actual mining operations have yielded reasonable estimates. For instance, a study by the United Nations University reported that Bitcoin mining consumed **173.42 Terawatt-hours** of electricity from 2020 to 2021. If Bitcoin were a nation, its energy consumption would surpass Pakistan’s, home to 220 million people.
Another research suggested that Bitcoin mining could be accountable for **65.4 megatonnes of CO2 annually** as of 2022, equating its carbon footprint to Greece’s.
**Comparing Big Tech and Bitcoin:**
Amazon’s self-disclosed carbon footprint was **71.54 million metric tons** in 2021, outpacing Bitcoin’s **65.4 million metric tons**. Adding Google’s **14.3 million tons** and Microsoft’s **15.3 million tons** of carbon emissions for 2023, and not accounting for Amazon’s growth or Apple’s **15.6 million tons**, the total exceeds 100 million tons annually.
While comparing corporate emissions to Bitcoin’s estimated impact isn’t entirely scientific, it’s evident that Big Tech’s carbon footprint is significantly larger.
Assuming similar power and carbon emission levels across AI data centers, Bitcoin, and cloud computing, it appears that since 2019, U.S. Big Tech has emitted more carbon than all the Bitcoin mining that has ever occurred globally.
**In the News:**
The world’s largest Bitcoin miner held onto its BTC stash throughout June, not selling any despite the market’s fluctuations.