Spam generates 17mn tons of CO² : Steps to reduce spams and reduce your carbon footprint.

Spam generates 17mn tons of CO² : Steps to reduce spams and reduce your carbon footprint.

Spam is not just an irritant to receivers, it is also a threat to the environment with a huge carbon footprint, say researchers. A study into spam has blamed it for the production of more than 33bn kilowatthours of energy every year, enough to power more than 2.4m homes. The ‘Carbon Footprint of email Spam Report’ estimated that 62 trillion spam emails are sent globally every year, the BBC News portal reported on Thursday.   This amounted to emissions of more than 17 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO ² ), the research by climate consultants ICF International and anti-virus firm McAfee found. Searching for legitimate emails and deleting spam used some 80% of energy.

The study found that the average business user generates 131kg of CO ² every year, of which 22% is related to spam.  ICF say that spam filtering would reduce unwanted spam by 75%, the equivalent to taking 2.3 million cars off the road. However, the ICF goes on to say that while spam filtering is effective in reducing energy waste, fighting it at the source is far better.   The report highlights the case of McColo, a US web hosting firm that had ties to spammers. The day after it was taken offline by its two internet service providers, global spam volume fell by 70%. Although the respite was only temporary, McAfee said that the “day without spam amounted to taking 2.2 million cars off the road” and that tackling spam should be part of the campaign to reduce our carbon footprint and save our planet.

How can you prevent spamming ?

1. Firstly make sure you never publish your email ids in unknown sites , better not to register. Its better to check the site in sites like http://www1.k9webprotection.com/support/check-site-rating.php , http://www.siteadvisor.com/
2. Be selective in sharing your id with unknown persons.
3. In social networking sites it is not recommended to share your email id to everyone, but to friends or focused groups only. Refer to the site http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/safety_issues/faqs.htm for more guidelines.
4. Make sure your system has the latest antivirus patches, malware, adwarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adware, spyware protection and a personal firewall configured for port preventing port attacks.
5. Whenever in doubt of any internet activity ask your friends or post questions in forum.
6. Don’t get too much attracted for free offers , cheap offers – your security maybe compromised.