homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Junk Mail around the world produces as much CO2 as 9 million cars

Who here doesn’t spam? No, not the damn meat, I’m talking about spam mail. Yup, there you go. You go to your inbox every morning to check your mail, hoping to find that letter from your ant in Brussels, but instead you get flood with loads of trash mail. Well, besides the fact that junk […]

Andrey
August 11, 2008 @ 8:38 am

share Share

Junk MailWho here doesn’t spam? No, not the damn meat, I’m talking about spam mail. Yup, there you go.

You go to your inbox every morning to check your mail, hoping to find that letter from your ant in Brussels, but instead you get flood with loads of trash mail. Well, besides the fact that junk mail agravates the hell out of most people, and has, more or less, absolutely no purpose, it seems it’s also very harmful for the environment.

How so? A report by the group ForestEthics estimates that destroying forests to make paper for junk mail releases as much greenhouse gas pollution as 9 million cars or seven U.S. states combined, or as much as heating 13 million homes each winter. Here’s what NASA climate scientist James Hansen, a leading voice in the global warming crisis, had to say about the report:

“20 years after I first testified before Congress on the threats posed by climate change, we have reached a point at which we must remove unnecessary carbon emissions from our lives, or face catastrophic consequences. It is hard to imagine waste more unnecessary than the 100 billion pieces of junk mail Americans receive each year, and these new findings, revealing that the emissions of junk mail are equal to those of over nine million cars, underscore the prudent necessity of a Do Not Mail Registry.”

share Share

Brazil’s ‘Big Zero’ Stadium on the Equator Lets Teams Change Hemispheres at Half Time

Each team is defending one hemisphere!

This New Coating Repels Oil Like Teflon Without the Nasty PFAs

An ultra-thin coating mimics Teflon’s performance—minus most of its toxicity.

To Fight Invasive Pythons in the Everglades Scientists Turned to Robot Rabbits

Scientists are unleashing robo-rabbits to trick and trap giant invasive snakes

The AI Boom Is Thirsty for Water — And Communities Are Paying the Price

What if the future of artificial intelligence depends on your town running out of water?

What If We Built Our Skyscrapers from Wood? It's Just Crazy Enough to Work (And Good for the Planet)

Forget concrete and steel. The real future is wood.

How Netscape lit the web on fire—and then watched the house burn down

Navigator, We Hardly Knew Ye.

Selfies are wrong; and also not right

Your left cheek could be the secret to getting more likes on social media.

Melting Glaciers May Unleash Hundreds of Dormant Volcanoes and Scientists Are Worried

Glacier retreat is triggering more explosive eruptions, with global consequences

Ancient Roman Pompeii had way more erotic art than you'd think

Unfortunately, there are few images we can respectably share here.

Glass bottles shed up to 50 times more microplastics into drinks than plastic or cans -- and the paint on the cap may be to blame

Glass bottles may surprisingly release more plastic particles than plastic ones.