Spam's carbon footprint: One e-mail is like driving three feet

This chart describes the percentage of greenhouse gas emissions associated with each component of spam energy use.

(Credit: ICF/McAfee)

Not only is spam a nuisance and sometimes criminally deceptive, it's got a carbon footprint.

The mere act of people around the world deleting spam and searching for legitimate e-mail falsely labeled as junk creates the annual energy consumption equivalent in the U.S. of 2.4 million homes using electricity and the same greenhouse gas emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using two billion gallons of gas.

That's according to "The Carbon Footprint of Email Spam Report" conducted by climate-change consultants ICF and commissioned by security vendor McAfee.

The average greenhouse gas emission associated with one spam message is 0.3 grams of CO2, about the same as driving three feet in equivalent emissions. When multiplied by the 62 trillion spam e-mails sent globally, that is like driving around the Earth 1.6 million times.

Eighty percent of the energy consumption associated with spam messages come from people having to do spam maintenance, the report found. Spam filtering accounts for only 16 percent of the energy use and saves the electrical equivalent of taking 13 million cars off the road per year.

If spam filters were used universally, the energy saved would be equivalent to taking 2.3 million cars off the road, the report said.

When major spam-hosting provider McColo was taken offline last November, global spam volume dropped by 70 percent overnight. That was the equivalent of taking 2.2 million cars off the road. Unfortunately, spam levels are back up as the spammers found other places to host their spam command-and-control servers.

[atici]

What about the carbon footprint of posting nonsensical news and attracting unsuspecting readers?

What's next? Are we expected to send fewer emails ?

[kcotham]

Why is it so hard to ferret out these servers and shut them down? I seriously want to know. It's not that hard to trace the messages back. Once that is done, why isn't it shut down and the person responsible for the spam arrested?

[libertyforall1776]

I would like to see an end to the carbon footprint carbon world income tax scheme! It is clear the end goal is to destroy the sovereignty of nations! Join the Campaign for Liberty!

[martin1212]

Paranoids Anonymous is the next door down the hall.

[poster48150]

"Why is it so hard to ferret out these servers and shut them down?" - Right, it's not hard to find the servers. Unfortunately, in many (most?) cases, the servers are connected via an ISP that won't shut them down, generally because the servers belong to paying customers. (Or substitute "home user with compromised system" for "server".)

[kcotham]

Any legitimate ISP would shut them down in a heartbeat. I've worked for ISPs and our system administrators actively searched for spammers on our system. It violates every terms of service agreement I've ever seen.

[d3vildog69]

seriously... where did this research come from. How about we worry about some carbon footprints of serious threats and not spam mail from south africa, which shouldn't be opened to begin with.

[gdmaclew]

How about we stop talking about this rediculous subject called "carbon credits" or "carbon footprint"?

[martin1212]

Um, it says right in the article where the research came from. It was sponsored by (surprise) McAfee who are presumably going to use it to push their tools. I'm all for reducing carbon footprints, but I'm suspicious of privately commissioned research used by companies to sell products like this. Whoever is doing the research knows what the company paying for it wants to see, so is likely to make sure to give them that result.

[karpenterskids]

How cow! If spam filters were used universally, the energy saved would be equivalent to taking 2.3 million cars off the road?

That's huge!
I'm blown away by that number. And even more by the fact that it's caused by something as small and "insignificant" as spam. :0

[i_am_still_wade]

One has to wonder how much the carbon footprint of this asinine study was.

[Joe Real]

Using the above article for logic, it is so easy to conclude that the biggest polluter in the whole world is Microsoft. One just has to tally how much idle time the windows OS spending per machine per day, doing nothing but consuming electric power. The idle times make up the bulk of Microsoft's activities, and the whole world is paying for it. So you have installed SETI to harness those idle times? Then SETI would be next in line. And the screensavers? And the playing of solitaire or MS Hearts by the people who are idle themselves waiting for a customer event. When you tally all of these in terms of carbon footprint, what the spammers are doing would suddenly be negligible.

[jinx101a]

Just as "guns don't kill people, people kill people" is true, the same is true for "OS's don't pollute, people pollute". People can shut down their computers during idle time or use any number of green alternatives to save energy, even with Windows. Welcome to 1998, ever heard of Sleep mode? ;P

[Joe Real]

A poorly designed OS pollutes more as a poorly designed vehicle pollutes more than others.

[ecr999]

jinkx and Joe, I see both sides of this argument. Yes, a poorly designed OS pollutes more, but what are we going to do? Sit around and complain about Microsoft, or take matters into our own hands? Sleep mode and energy efficiency with PCs is something we can control. This is a good article about just that: http://www.softwarenewsdaily.com/2009/04/save-energy-by-turning-off-your-computer-at-night

[compbl]

The best part of the actual report. They say that the average greenhouse gas emission associated with one spam message is 0.3 grams of CO2. According to the report non spam email actually uses 4.0 grams of CO2. So it is actually greener to read your spam and delete your real email.

Honestly though, I thought this was such a load of garbage when I read it. especially the reduction of gasses when using a filter. NICE MARKETING THERE

[compbl]

The actual report if anyone wants to read it

http://img.en25.com/Web/McAfee/CarbonFootprint_12pg_web_REV_NA.pdf

[chambcm]

Who comes up with this CRAP!!?? What a JOKE!

[victoriarugby]

**** O.o

[DA575707]

I am interested in reporting spams. Where do we internet persons go to doing this? Thanks. Dale. DA575707.