The Carbon Footprint Of Spam

Spam uses 33 Terawatt hours of power every year, according to new figures by McAfee.

Yes, spam’s annoying, sometimes dangerous to your computer’s health, but who’s really considered its environmental impact? Internet security company McAfee has, and has concluded that spam mails use 33 Terawatt hours of power every year.

Each spam mail generates 0.3 grams of carbon, from the energy needed to create and delete it, and with an estimated 62 trillion spam mails in 2008, that mounts up quickly.

Although the company says that spam filters manage to eliminate 75% of spam, eliminating the sources of spam would have a much greater effect – when McColo was shut down last year, for instance, spam levels dropped drastically for a while.

In the report, McAfee said:

“The most obvious benefit of the shutdown for practically anyone with an email address was an immediate reduction in unsolicited junk messages.”

“At the same time, the planet experienced a less obvious environmental benefit. For every spam email not sent, an associated reduction in electricity use, and therefore carbon emissions, took place.”

That reduction in carbon emissions was about the same as taking 2.1 million cars off the road. The energy consumed in sending and deleting spam could power 2.4 million homes.