McAfee Inc.: Spam hurts environment

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 17 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggests spam e-mail is more than a nuisance, and that it is damaging to the environment.

The energy used to transmit, process and filter spam across the globe each year totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours, equivalent to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes, security technology company McAfee Inc. said Thursday.

The report said generation of spam creates greenhouse gas emissions equal to those of 3.1 million passenger cars using 2 billion gallons of gasoline each year, the report said.

The carbon footprint study looked at global energy expended to create, store, view and filter spam across 11 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, India, Mexico, Spain and the United States.