Gold can legitimize the work of those who mined it.
Paper Bitcoin delegitimizes the mining of every miner and the exchanges who play paper games. It especially is evil when those exchanges espouse a better monetary policy.
In short, paper anything is the more evil evil.
Makes sense on verification side, how about the damage real gold caused in process of mining, refining and transportation?
Thankfully, in my perception-that global warming is utter bullshit-that damage is mostly localized and isn't very impactful in the global perspective. But the habitat destruction probably is, given how many treatments, cures and technologies have come from research in the world's wilds, and I am not educated enough in any of this to try to quantify that impact.
Destroying what God created cannot end well is my intuitive answer.
