Guidi Gianluca, Dominici Francesca, Steinsultz Nat, Dance Gabriel, Henneman Lucas, Richardson Henry, Castro Edgar, Bargagli-Stoffi Falco J, Delaney Scott
Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Department of Computer Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Res Sq. 2024 Oct 22:rs.3.rs-5306015. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5306015/v1.
Bitcoin mines-massive computing clusters generating cryptocurrency tokens-consume vast amounts of electricity. The amount of fine particle (PM) air pollution created because of their electricity consumption, and its effect on environmental health, is unknown. In this study, we located the 34 largest mines in the United States in 2022, identified the electricity-generating plants that responded to them, and pinpointed communities most harmed by Bitcoin mine-attributable air pollution. From mid-2022 to mid-2023, the 34 mines consumed 32.3 terawatt-hours of electricity-33% more than Los Angeles-85% of which came from fossil fuels. We estimated that 1.9 million Americans were exposed to ≥0.1 μg/m of additional PM pollution from Bitcoin mines, which were often hundreds of miles away from communities they affected. Americans living in four regions-including New York City and near Houston-were exposed to the highest Bitcoin mine-attributable PM concentrations (≥0.5 μg/m) with the greatest health risks.
比特币矿场——产生加密货币代币的大型计算集群——消耗大量电力。由于其电力消耗而产生的细颗粒物（PM）空气污染量及其对环境健康的影响尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们确定了2022年美国34个最大的矿场，找出了为它们供电的发电厂，并确定了受比特币矿场造成的空气污染危害最大的社区。从2022年年中到2023年年中，这34个矿场消耗了32.3太瓦时的电力——比洛杉矶多33%——其中85%来自化石燃料。我们估计，190万美国人暴露于来自比特币矿场的额外PM污染中，暴露水平≥0.1μg/m³，而这些矿场往往距离它们影响的社区数百英里。生活在包括纽约市和休斯顿附近在内的四个地区的美国人暴露于比特币矿场造成的最高PM浓度（≥0.5μg/m³）中，健康风险最大。
