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15 Apr 2009: The Environmental Cost of Spam

Transmitting, deleting, and reading the estimated 62 trillion junk e-mails sent worldwide last year wasted enough electricity to power 2.4 million American homes and created greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 3.1 million cars, according to a study by the computer security company, McAfee Inc. Roughly 80 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the avalanche of spam came from the electricity consumed as computer users sifted through, viewed, and deleted junk-emails, McAfee said. The remaining energy consumption was due to transmitting spam — which accounts for 97 percent of all e-mail — and the electricity consumed by spam filters. “While the spam that arrives in any individual’s inbox may create just a small puff of (carbon dioxide), the puff multiplied by millions of users worldwide adds up,” McAfee wrote.

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