Intervention Justified?
A Case for Government Intervention?
According to a report from McAfee, over 60 trillion unsolicited e-mails (SPAM) were sent in 2008, using 33 terawatt hours of electricity (A terawatt is equal to one trillion watts.) 1.5 million American homes or 3.1 million cars consume this amount of power in one year. If this were generated by coal-fired power plants it would release 17 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Dealing with spam is a waste of time and computer resources, thus it has a serious, measurable impact on productivity. Just add up all the basic activity involved at the spam receiving end such as viewing, scanning inboxes, deletions, running anti-spam software and its required frequent updates. Add to this the time and energy consumed at the source preparing and sending the spam. The total is almost beyond imagination.
In addition to the environmental abuse, the cost of spam and its resulting frustration is not only high, but it is growing daily. Yes, even legitimate email has a time and energy cost, a fact of which we should all be aware. The difference is in the quantity of email – up to 80% of all email is considered spam. This is one area that needs government attention and appropriate, enforceable laws against the insidious proliferation of unsolicited email.
