the environmental and social impacts of mining at large scale have to be considered. it just does not seem wise to spend so much electricity and CO2 for mining.
I agree, up to an extent, that mining as whole, has a problem to overcome. But, so far, there is no way to have a stake other than "electricity". And you need that stake (in the Proof Of Work) to solve the Byzantine Fault Tolerance.
Proof of stake, or even Proof of RAM (I'm just making that up here), Proof of Space are alternatives, some are actively being developed. Proof of Stake, might, potentially, solve this whole "energy wasting" thing.
But the fundamental question is: "Is it a waste of energy"? Is the burning of energy to secure a decentralized, autonomous, permissionless monetary system a "waste"? Maybe. but in that case there are far more obvious cases of "wasting" energy.