You'd think a journal calling itself "Reason" would know not to use a reductio ad absurdum argument when it gets to misrepresent the absurdity it's criticizing.

You'd think a journal calling itself "Reason" would know not to use a reductio ad absurdum argument when it gets to misrepresent the absurdity it's criticizing. The actual Newsweek article from 2017 that they cite says "The bitcoin network's energy consumption has increased by 25 percent in the last month alone, according to Digiconomist. If such growth were to continue, this would see the network consume as much energy as the U.S. by 2019, and as much energy as the entire world by the end of 2020." Notice that crucial key word "if". This is why oncologists say, "If left unchecked, your cancer will spread through the entire body." There's a lot of things (chemotherapy, radiation, death) that can interrupt the process. Pretending the article is actually claiming uninterrupted exponential growth is dishonest. (While Newsweek's clickbait title sucks, Reason is doing the same here, so I'm considering that a tie.)