How crypto-mining pushes us toward further climate warming.
By Caroline Grass
Dark greenish-grey and covered in pale spots, lake trout enjoy deep, clear water. They are slow-growing fish that routinely live past 25 years old and can be found in Canada, Alaska, the Great Lakes, and the Finger Lakes. Plentiful fish populations help boost local tourism and recreation. Lake trout have been described as the ‘bread and butter species’ of the Finger Lakes by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and over 39 million people fished in 2022 according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, spending $99.4 billion in fishing-related expenditures.
But more important than bringing anglers to the region, a robust lake trout population indicates a healthy ecosystem as the trout are extremely sensitive to pollution and poor water quality. Seneca Lake, the largest glacial Finger Lake in Central New York, is known as the “Lake Trout Capital of the World,” boasting optimal water conditions for the fish: cold, oxygen-rich waters. Since 1964, Seneca Lake has hosted the National Lake Trout Derby to celebrate the species and fishing, but Seneca’s water quality is under threat from an unlikely source—cryptocurrency mining.
Greenidge Generation
On the western shore of the lake, a Bitcoin mining plant mars the lush landscape. Three large, brick chimneys emerging from an industrial building complex, tower over the tree line in the Village of Dresden. The plant, owned and operated by Greenidge Generation, is home to 29,000 Bitcoin miners, compared to the just 293 residents living in Dresden. Don’t be fooled though, these ‘miners’ aren’t hard-working people chipping away at the earth, harvesting precious metals. They are specialized computers that solve the computational problems to win Bitcoin.
While cryptocurrency has made headlines for its quick rise to popularity and volatile market value, the environmental impact of mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency is often pushed to the backburner or ignored completely. Greenidge is making and losing millions of dollars every quarter to the detriment of Seneca Lake residents—people, plants, and animals alike. In the company’s third-quarter preliminary financial results, Greenidge ended “with approximately $11.3 million of cash and digital assets, including 60 bitcoin and approximately $69.5 million of debt” while also creating “nearly as much CO2 as 83,774 cars on the road” annually, according to Earth Justice.
Cryptocurrency explained
Created in 2008, Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and is the most well-known. It is a virtual currency that allows people to send money without a bank as an intermediary or regulator. The price of bitcoin fluctuates and on February 1st, 2025, one bitcoin was worth $102,755.52. Bitcoin mining plants, including Greenidge Generation in Dresden, compete to validate bitcoin transactions. The specialized computers in the plant race to solve the mathematical puzzles and the first to complete the calculation correctly gets to record the transaction in the digital ledger known as blockchain. The reward for successfully validating is bitcoin and transaction fees.
The computers solving the problems to win Bitcoin run all day every day and require immense energy input to run. In 2025, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated the annual electricity demand from crypto mining to be .6-2.3% of all U.S. electricity consumption. The EIA asserts that on the low end of this electricity range the amount of energy mining requires is equal to the annual electricity usage for entire states such as Utah and West Virginia. And much of this energy is squandered, Kara Anderson writing for the publication Greenly points out because only the first miner to complete the problem is rewarded.
The emissions created from the mining process is as equally vast as the energy input required. A 2018 paper from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimated the global annual carbon emissions range for Bitcoin alone to sit between the annual CO2 emissions of countries Bolivia and Portugal. And on the local level, Greenidge Generation is warming Seneca Lake. Not just through their CO2 emissions which contribute to climate change and global warming, but from their 650-foot-long water intake pipe that draws over 139 million gallons of water a day (an Olympic-size swimming pool holds roughly 660,000 gallons) from the lake to cool the computers in their plant.
Warming the waters
The intake pipe, seven feet in diameter, hulks over the water as it extends over two football fields in length into the lake before disappearing under the water’s surface. Per Greenidge’s permit, water discharged back into the lake can be as hot as 108°F in the summer to 86°F in the winter. Yet Seneca Lake during its warmest month has only an average temperature of 72°F and in its coldest month averages 36°F.
Dissolved oxygen is critical for plant growth and animal life and decreases with high water temperatures. Further, Harmful Algal Blooms which are triggered by a combination of water and environmental conditions (and that have plagued the Finger Lakes in recent years) thrive in water temperatures over 75°F. And finally, back to Seneca Lake’s favorite fish, the lake trout. They are most active in temperatures between 37°F and 67°F, making the warm water discharged back into the lake incredibly harmful to their survival. Cryptocurrency is flashy, yes, and it has the potential to make individuals who play the market very wealthy, but the environmental harm created by Bitcoin mining is threatening places like Seneca Lake and all those who depend on it to survive.
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