An ICF International report commissioned by McAfee estimates the environmental impact of all that spam that ends up in your inbox.
We never consider that what happens in the virtual world of the internet can have an impact on the environment. But the internet runs on electricity and the generation of electricity more often than not has an environmental impact.
If you consider the electricity used to send, filter, download and finally delete spam it emits the equivalent in carbon of approximately 3.1 million cars every year. This quantifies the very real cost of spammers to our society.
So what can you do?
From StopSpamHere.ca:
Protect your computer
Spam is a growing source of computer viruses. It's critical that you protect your computer from virus-carrying spam messages. Install and regularly update antivirus and anti-spam software. If you don't have the extra protection of a firewall, get it.
Protect your email address
Reserve one email address for your trusted personal and business contacts. Create a separate, expendable email address for other online uses.
Protect yourself
Don't try, don't buy and don't reply to spam. Just delete it. It's a great way to prevent receiving more spam in the future.