Spam e-mail has giant carbon footprint

A study released today found that the carbon footprint for those annoying, unsolicited e-mails we all get in our inbox is enormous.

The study estimated that 63 trillion spam messages were sent last year, resulting in a usage of 33 terawatt hours of energy. That's roughly the same energy consumption as 2.4 million houses!

While each e-mail itself only results in a very small emission, the emissions resulting from all spam e-mail are equivalent to that from over three million cars.

"There is an energy cost with the transaction, storage and deletion of any email," McAfee's Dave Marcus told Business Green. "When you start to add it up, we are talking about a significant impact."

For more info on the study, check out this story from Business Green.