Reckless instincts During the campaign for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre at one point declared that, should he become ...
"Currently, the amount of electrical power being used to support bitcoin is enough to supply the needs of all of Scotland," writes Terry Pearson. - ReutersDuring the campaign for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre at one point declared that, should he become prime minister, he’d proceed to make Canada “the world leader in bitcoin.”
Most people don’t really know what bitcoin is or how it works, and that doesn't matter in the end. What does matter is that bitcoin, because of the vast amounts of computing power, hence electrical energy, needed to make it operate, is a gross waster of energy. It contributes to global warming in two ways: the energy required to run all those computers is dissipated in the form of heat; and heat is discharged into the atmosphere in the process of generating the needed electricity.
In campaign speeches, Poilievre railed against mask mandates and compulsory vaccination for certain groups, demonstrating his willingness to reject best-available information and instead side with folklore and dubious cries about “freedom,” ignoring the deaths of more than 40,000 Canadians at that stage in the pandemic. In this, he showed sympathy with Trumpist policy, and that nod is probably not an accident.
Once again, there is a parallel with Donald Trump, who showed a willingness to be cruel to young children when his administration wrested migrant young ones from their parents and tossed them into holding cages.