ONE SPAM MESSAGE IS EQUIVALENT TO DRIVING THREE FEET

There’s a new reason to hate spam emails, and it has nothing to do with clogging up your inbox.

According to a report issued Wednesday by an environmental group, the greenhouse gas emitted from one spam message is the same as driving a vehicle three feet.

That may not sound like a lot, but thin about how much spam the average person gets in one day. Now multiply that by millions and you can see how the number could get out of control.

The mere act of Internet users worldwide deleting spam and searching for legitimate e-mail falsely labeled as junk creates the 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. [CNet]

The report said that there are roughly 62 trillion spam emails sent globally; the equivalent of driving around the Earth 1.6 million times.

And I’m wondering if the distance the message has to travel might make it worse.

If so, this guy in Nigeria who wants my bank account information and social security number for “large money of transfer from wealth inherit” is quite possibly the greatest polluter in the history of the world.

Photo: The Daily Mail