I have found lots of articles talking about how bitcoin works, and quite a few that analyze the growing industry around it. Relatively little though speaks to the potential political implications of Bitcoin's growing electricity consumption.
It seems to me that since block reward and mining industry gross margins are reasonably steady in the short term, that if Bitcoin were to (say) rise ten fold in price similar to previous rises eg. at the end of 2013, this would encourage a near-proportionate rise in the hash rate and electricity consumption.
Already I read that Bitcoin consumes as much electricity as a small country. Can the world cope with the environmental consequences of a short-term 10x or 100x jump in the Bitcoin price? What might the reaction of major powers (especially China) be?
Am I wrong in concluding that a massive short term jump in the price simply won't be politically or environmentally feasible?