Save electricity by eliminating spam

If you're looking for a way to save money, find a way to cut down on e-mail spam.

The same amount of energy that was used to transmit, process and filter the 62 trillion spam e-mails sent last year was enough energy to power for a year all of the homes foreclosed in the United States in 2008, according to a recent study on the carbon footprint of spam.

Granted, the study was done by McAfee, which sells anti-virus and anti-spam software. But the figures clearly point out that spam has a bigger carbon footprint than mailing a letter the old fashioned way with a stamp across the country.