Spam is more than a nuisance. It is contributing meaningfully to global warming.
A study shows each spam is responsible for 0.3 grams of CO2
This observation may come as a surprise to most people. But here is the argument laid out in a study commissioned by McAfee and completed by climate researchers ICF International.
More than 63 trillion spam e-mails zipped across the world’s computer networks in 2008, enough to overwhelm the mailboxes of most Internet users.
ICF researchers found that the energy required to transmit, process and filter all this spam adds up to 33 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, or enough to generate 0.3 grams of carbon dioxide for each message sent and received.
That mean together, this onslaught is responsible for the emissions of 2.4 million homes or 3.1 million passenger cars.
With power plants spewing massive columns of smoke and the emissions from million of vehicles wafting over the nation’s highways, unwanted e-mail may seem an insignificant drop in the bucket.
But if driving around the world 1.6 million times is insignificant, them dismiss the contribution of spam. Otherwise, hope for a more effective way to filter these digital pests.
