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Green Or Gone

Bitcoin To Tesla, False Promises For Saving The Planet

Tesla recently unveiled its electric semi
Tesla recently unveiled its electric semi

-Analysis-

Bitcoin's blistering price rise has broken a new milestone, passing the $10,000 threshold for the first time. It's a considerable achievement given that the most famous of cryptocurrencies was worth under $1,000 at the beginning of this year, and first reached $2,000 just a few months ago. But it's also a frightening feat.

The fears go beyond the rumblings of a new speculative bubble around the revolutionary (and still largely untested) virtual financial mechanism. Bitcoin's surge is also a cause for concern for a less obvious reason: the environment.

Yes, bitcoins are bad for the planet. Despite being a digital currency, bitcoins exist in limited supply and they need to be "mined," (a virtual variation on the way we mine gold, for instance). This is done by solving extremely complex mathematical problems, which requires a lot of very tangible and very powerful computers — and therefore an awful lot of electricity.

Each Bitcoin transaction now uses as much energy as an average U.S. home does in an entire week.

The more bitcoins are mined, the more difficult these problems become and, consequently, the more computing power and electrical energy is needed.

Recent research conducted by the website Digiconomist has shown that Bitcoin mining alone now consumes more electricity in a year than the whole of Ireland, and more than most African countries. By another measure, each Bitcoin transaction now uses as much energy as an average U.S. home does in an entire week.

But this is not the only innovation, billed as inherently beneficial, that comes with an environmental downside. For years now, electric cars have been touted as a welcome and necessary alternative to internal-combustion vehicles and their CO2 emissions. The most recent electric vehicle unveiling came earlier this month, when Tesla announced Tesla Semi, an electric truck with a 500-mile range and a quick-charge system. And yet, already, questions are being raised about the electrical capabilities required, with a report estimating that one Tesla truck will need the energy of about 4,000 homes to recharge.

This quest for money and (electric) power comes full circle with the recent news that some owners of Tesla vehicles have equipped their cars with computer units so as to be able to mine Bitcoins while charging their cars at free charging stations.

For all the technological prowess behind both Bitcoin and Tesla, the urgent question of ecology requires some rather simple math: Will it raise or lower the temperature of the planet?

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

The Russian Orthodox Church Has A Kremlin Spy Network — And Now It's Spreading Abroad

The Russian Orthodox Church has long supported Russia’s ongoing war effort in Ukraine. Now, clergy members in other countries are suspected of collaborating with and recruiting for Russian security forces.

Photo of Russian soldiers during mass at an Orthodox church in Moscow.

Russian soldiers during mass at an Orthodox church in Moscow.

Wiktoria Bielaszyn

WARSAW — Several countries have accused members of the Russian Orthodox clergy of collaborating with Russian security services, pushing Kremlin policy inside the church and even recruiting spies from within.

On Sept. 21, Bulgaria deported Russian Archimandrite Vassian, guardian of the Orthodox parish in Sofia, along with two Belarusian priests. In a press release, the Bulgarian national security agency says that clergy were deported because they posed a threat to national security. "The measures were taken due to their actions against the security and interests of the Republic of Bulgaria," Bulgarian authorities wrote in a statement, according to Radio Svoboda.

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These reports were also confirmed by Russia's ambassador to Bulgaria, Eleonora Mitrofanova, who told Russian state news agency TASS that the priests must leave Bulgaria within 24 hours. “After being declared persona non grata, Wassian and the other two clerics were taken home under police supervision to pack up their belongings. Then they will be taken to the border with Serbia" she said.

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