Spam’s carbon footprint 垃圾電郵的碳足跡

◎陳成良

Not only is spam a nuisance and sometimes criminally deceptive, it’s got a carbon footprint.

垃圾郵件不但煩人，時而涉及犯罪詐欺，還會留下碳足跡。

The mere act of people around the world deleting spam and searching for legitimate e-mail falsely labeled as junk creates the annual energy consumption equivalent in the U.S. of 2.4 million homes using electricity and the same greenhouse gas emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using two billion gallons of gas.

全球各地民眾刪除垃圾郵件並搜尋被錯誤標示為垃圾的合法電郵，單單這種舉動每年所消耗的能源就相當於美國240萬戶家庭用電，溫室氣體排放量也等同於310萬輛小客車消耗20億加侖汽油。

That’s according to "The Carbon Footprint of Email Spam Report" conducted by climate-change consultants ICF and commissioned by security vendor McAfee.

以上結論是根據資安業者McAfee委託氣候變遷顧問公司ICF進行的「垃圾電郵碳足跡報告」。

The average greenhouse gas emission associated with one spam message is 0.3 grams of CO2, about the same as driving three feet in equivalent emissions. When multiplied by the 62 trillion spam e-mails sent globally, that is like driving around the Earth 1.6 million times.

與一封垃圾郵件相關的平均二氧化碳（CO2）排放量為0.3公克，約相當於開車移動3呎的排放量。如果乘以全球寄出的62兆封垃圾電郵，等於開車繞地球160萬次。

If spam filters were used universally, the energy saved would be equivalent to taking 2.3 million cars off the road, the report said.

如果全世界普遍使用垃圾郵件過濾器，節省的能源將等於道路上少了230萬輛車子。

新聞辭典

carbon footprint：名詞，碳足跡，指一個人、家庭、組織或國家所排放的溫室氣體（主要是二氧化碳）數量，也是溫室氣體排放量的通用測量標準。例 句：Calculate your carbon footprint, start reducing it and saving money.（計算你的碳足跡，開始減量來省錢。）

equivalent：形容詞，相等的；等值的。名詞，相等物。例句：The French word has no equivalent in English。（這個法文字在英文中沒有相對應的一個字。）

multiply：動詞，相乘；使（成倍地）增加。例句：The harm is done, the dissonances multiply. （傷害已經造成，不和諧的事情越來越多。）