It's official: Carbon-footprint mania has flown past "getting to be a bit much" and landed smack in the middle of a cow patty (produced, of course, by one of those inscrutably oblivious bovine gas bags).
McAfee this morning has released a 12-page report on the subject, which, had I sacrificed a tree branch to convert from its .pdf format wouldn't be worth the paper it was printed on:
In McAfee's "Carbon Footprint of Spam" study released today, climate-change researchers ICF and spam experts calculated globally the annual energy used to transmit, process and filter spam totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), or 33 terawatt hours (TWh). That's equivalent to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes, with the same GHG emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using 2 billion gallons of gasoline.
"As the world faces the growing problem of climate change, this study highlights that spam has an immense financial, personal and environmental impact on businesses and individuals," said Jeff Green, senior vice president of product development and McAfee Avert Labs. "Stopping spam at its source, as well investing in state-of-the-art spam filtering technology, will save time and money, and will pay dividends to the planet by reducing carbon emissions as well."
Need I mention that McAfee sells spam filtering technology? Didn't think so.
There's nothing wrong with calculating the carbon footprint of spam, of course, should you have a term paper due and/or be financially motivated. It just strikes me as reminiscent of those insipid lost-productivity studies that blame the global recession on March Madness office pools.
Everybody's got to make a buck.
But I've been writing about spam for going on 13 years now without ever once considering its carbon footprint. I've clear-cut forests chronicling the financial costs of junk e-mail to service providers and IT departments, as well as considering an endless parade of purported remedies both technical and legal.
Yet the spam it shows no respect for my efforts. ... Perhaps all that has been missing has been a proper appreciation for what it all means to global warming. And perhaps monkeys will fly out of my inbox.
Please don't misinterpret this rant: When it comes to environmental sensitivities, I like to consider myself a relatively responsible Earthling. I recycle, drive a gas-sipper, vote for green-friendly Democrats over planet-pillaging Republicans, chase the kids around the house turning off even our new compact fluorescent light bulbs ... and, I'm giving serious if somewhat sporadic thought to buying a few of those canvas shopping bags.
But I'm just not ready to translate every human endeavor into an environmental referendum.
I mean where does it end?
We got the kids a Wii for Christmas without once considering how many hours of "LEGO Star Wars the Complete Saga" they could play without jeopardizing future generations.
Each new iteration of the iPhone and its ilk brings ever closer the day when we're all packing mini-mainframes. Think of the planet, people.
Twitter must have the carbon footprint of Sasquatch.
Texting? OMG w'r SOL.
The other morning I heard a Boston TV news reader actually say: "We all spend a lot of time thinking about our carbon footprints ..."
Huh? I spend more time walking on water.
But I wanted to put my footprint on her backside. Enough already.
Welcome regulars and passersby. Here are a few more recent Buzzblog items. And, if you'd like to receive Buzzblog via e-mail newsletter, here's where to sign up.
Snopes.com gets an "A" from fellow fact-checkers.
Reason No. 2 to resist filing a complaint with the FCC.
2009's 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries.
Mich. lawmaker urges governor to rethink RFID in licenses
Melissa virus turning 10 ... (age of the stripper remains unknown).
Tweeting with "Star Trek" actor sparks kitchen fire?
40% of geeks surveyed admit to working ... how many hours?
A few clean words from the creator of Cursebird.
Want to close your LendingTree account? Sorry, no can do.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
Climate Change...
The hysteria concerning "climate change" has already gone well past ridiculous. Ok, ok... Those that think they can "save the planet"... More power to ya. But really! All the regulations and B.S. that goes along with all this hysteria is way past over the top. Man made climate change is a myth! It causing the end of the world "if we do nothing" is a bigger myth! I personally am sick and tired of hearing about it all. Green this and green that... It makes me want to burn my old fashioned light bulbs, get a huge SUV that burns as much gas as I can afford, and produce as much carbon as any one person possibly can! Maybe I could figure out a way to burn coal to heat my house! LOL!
Look, I'm all for trying not to pollute or destroy the animals, water, and everything else in our environment, but I want it to make sense and minimize the intrusiveness to my lifestyle as much as possible. I sure don't want it to be mandated by the government like this stupid light bulb thing and the water saver toilets that you have to flush 3 or 4 times anyway. How much taxpayer money was wasted on that fiasco? Our government is run by a bunch of morons who can't find their rear ends with both hands and we steadily let them intrude into our lives where they are not wanted or needed. As you said... "Enough already".
Proof?
And what proof do you have that climate change isn't caused by man? I love how everything with people like you is about "my lifestyle" and screw everyone else.
Well screw you too.
Thanks...
you just added to the carbon footprint! LOL! ;-)
empirical evidence
The empirical evidence would suggest that humanity DOES have an effect on the environment (obvious example: Exxon Valdes). I realize global warming is not agreed upon by everyone, but I've never heard any scientific proof that it isn't happening, and there seems to be plenty of scientific evidence that it is. The fact that just about any natural scientist you ask says it's a problem makes me tend to fall on that side of the argument.
As Ryan so tellingly observed, the biggest objections to the existence of global warming tend to come from those whose lavish lifestyles would be impacted if our government finally gathered up the guts to do something about it. Personally, every time I see a huge SUV with only one person in it, I want to shoot out their tires (but - of course - I'm in favor of gun control, so that's not an option).
Alas, comfort and luxury beat global responsibility any day of the week... at least here in America.
Climate change is cyclical.
I didn't say man didn't have an affect on the environment. Obviously, oil spills, dumping chemicals into rivers, etc. has an affect. I agree that sort of thing should be prevented, fines levied, whatever.
I'm talking about this whole "global warming" b.s. that has now been changed to "climate change" because the evidence for "warming" isn't working out so good. For example, the polar ice caps growing at a record rate this year... There is no scientific consensus about "climate change". Only in the media and those with their own agenda are preaching "climate change" as the new gospel. Climate change is cyclical and has been happening since the beginning of the planet. You can ask any Meteorologist or those that record and observe weather patterns. The sun and solar flares have more to do with climate change than man could ever have.
And I'm sorry, but I'm not taking 4 trash bins to the curb just for a bunch of enviro-extremists. 1 for the cans, 1 for the plastic bottles, 1 for the paper, and 1 for the rest of the trash... Not gonna happen!
Misspelling...
And yes, I realize I used "affect" when I should have used "effect"...
Rollaire3@yahoo.com
Wow, makes pretty good sense to me it does! Well done!
RT
www.anon-tools.at.tc
Monkeys
I think it should be "Monkeys fly out of my outbox," instead of inbox. Makes a bit more sense given the original context of the saying.
Do I hear a ba-dum-tish?
Preventing the Ice Age
Just think -if email had been invented 10,000 years ago, spammers would have been heroes for preventing the last Ice Age. On cold days, I will simply now email more to raise the Earth's temperature.
Seriously, Mr. Jennings is a bright guy and McAfee makes great products. I hope their reputations are not tarnished by the quite nonsensical conclusions offered in this report.
McAfee forgot to include well-meaning chain letters
McAfee could have made more of an impact if it had included heavy graphic and sound files in chain letters, i.e., the ones that end with "send this to 5 perons, including me..."
Post new comment