"Bitcoin mining has zero carbon emissions," says an April 10, 2023 tweet from Riot Platforms Inc.
The post includes a video of a man testing for emissions outside a bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas.
Screenshot of a tweet taken April 21, 2023
Riot published the clip in response to an April 9 New York Times article about the environmental cost of bitcoin mining in the US. The video accumulated more than 1.3 million views.
"We're here out in Rockdale, Texas," Pierre Rochard, vice president of research at Riot, says in the footage, displaying a device measuring carbon dioxide. "We're going to go inside the mining facility and we're going to see how much is this number going to go up. If the number does not go up, then the mining rigs are not emitting any CO2."
After checking readings outside and inside the facility, Rochard claims this data proves that bitcoin mining "does not emit any CO2."
"I think the science is conclusive," he says.
The company also issued a press release (archived here) with a more detailed explanation.
"To be clear, our Bitcoin mining operations do not generate any greenhouse gas emissions, similar to any other data center for Facebook, Amazon or Google --...
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