We all know and hate spam. It doesn't get as much attention today as it used to because we have started to take it for granted, but it isn't going away. The story gets more depressing: McAfee's "The Carbon Footprint of Email Spam Report" says that the energy used to transmit, process and filter spam uses the same energy as 2.4 million US homes and creates the same greenhouse gas emissions as 3.1 million cars using 2 billion gallons of gasoline.

It always strikes me as backwards and ultimately tragic that although we consider ourselves rational beings we go ahead and destroy our environment and ourselves. Science claims to be the most rational form of explaining the Big questions (over religion, spiritualism, magic etc.). Maybe it is, but it is also the most likely to lead us to extinction. How rational is that?

This is why I just had to shake my head today as I read about perhaps the greatest invention of our time and its contribution to our potential future demise. Computers and in particular the internet are great achievements of mankind. But as it always seems with us there are large unintended consequences. Spam is annoying, but who would have thought it could actually contribute to the downfall of human civilization?

At these times I always ask myself what can I do to help the situation? I hope that informing a couple of people through this blog will help. Something more concrete that we can all do is install effective spam filters. The McAfee study says spam filters take the equivalent of 13 million cars off the road.

P.S. this article is in no way a reflection of a fine, quality food product.