According to a report released this week by computer security company McAfee, the energy used to generate junk e-mails in 2008 (spammers sent over 62 trillion in the past year) was enough to have powered 2.4 million homes for a year or driven a car around the planet 1.6 times.
That waste of energy is also polluting the environment. Anything powered by electricity also emits greenhouse gases. McAfee researchers say each junk e-mail emits 0.3 grams of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). That may not sound like much, but when you consider the volume of global annual spam, it all adds up. Spam-related emissions for all e-mail users around the world in 2008 totaled 17 million metric tons of CO2, according to ICF International, the consulting firm that partnered with McAfee on the study. That's .2 percent of the total global emissions. Bottom line? Clean out your spam box and unsubscribe from what you can. It may seem like a little thing but the changes we make together add up to a big difference. Read the full article here
Latest Comments