Spam Doesn't Waste Energy, Humans Do

A recent study that equates spam’s carbon footprint to that of a whopping 2.4 million homes is fascinating, but completely wrong, Jeremy Kaplan writes in PC Magazine. The researchers traced most of the energy usage to the end user’s computer, but that energy-waster would probably be left on even if no one was manually filtering spam, he points out.

“If you had absolutely no spam in your inbox, would you turn your PC off earlier—or use the extra time you’ve saved to play more World of Warcraft?” asks Kaplan, noting that “business users leave their PCs on all day regardless of whether they’ve finished sorting their inboxes.” (More spam stories.)