62 trillion spam e-mails = power used by 1.5 million homes

Get ready to feel guilty. According to a study conducted by ICF International and commissioned by McAfee, the average business email user generates 131 kg of CO2 every year simply by dealing with email. 22% is related to spam, which translates to the extra use of 3.3 gallons of gasoline every year, ICF found. ICF came up with that number by looking at the average power consumption of a computer and comparing it to the time it would take users to create, send, receive, store, view and delete emails.

The spam carbon footprint, which is caused by harvesting addresses, creating spam campaigns, sending spam from zombies and mail servers, transmitting spam from sender to receiver, processing of spam by incoming mail servers, storing messages, viewing and deleting spam as well as, filtering spam and searching for false positives requires 33 billion kWh every year, according to ICF – which is about the power that is provided by a 4 GW power plant.

The emissions add up to 17 million metric tons of CO2, about 0.2% of the globe’s CO2 output – or about the same that is created by 1.5 million U.S. homes. Or the emissions of 3.1 million passenger vehicles running on 2 billion gallons of gasoline.  All numbers are based on an estimate of 62 trillion spam e-mails sent in 2008.