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=Economic Impacts of Climate Change may be huge= RELATED ARTICLES Climate change could reduce the economic value of the services the oceans provide to mankind by almost US$2 trillion a year by 2100, according to a study presented at the Planet Under Pressure conference this week (26—29 March).

The analysis, conducted by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), relates to loss of income from fisheries, tourism, ocean carbon sink, and those related to sea-level rise and storms. This figure presents loss at a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario — under a lower emissions scenario, the damage would be US$612 billion a year by 2100. Even looking to 2050, the estimated loss is US$106 billion and US$428 billion depending on the level of emissions. The researchers said that rather asking impossible questions such as 'what is the ocean itself worth?' they sought to answer questions such as 'what is the value of preventing further damage to the ocean?'.

=Unemployed Young People Are Costing Americans Billions of Tax Dollars=

Whether the rhetoric is coming from the left or the right, politicians and journalists love to pity recession-era youth. "[|Think of the children]!" Republicans crowed during the deficit debacle. "Are we condemning our children to [|downward mobility]?" wrote a concerned //[|Newsweek]// reporter in 2009. But a new report [[|PDF]] should boomerang their concern right back home: Every unemployed, non-matriculating young person (there are around 6.7 million of them between ages 16-24) costs taxpayers $13,900 a year. That's $437 billion over the next five years, a figure that balloons to $1.15 trillion over the course of their lifetime. The total impact to the economy will reach $4.7 trillion over the next several decades. So why are older adults still acting as if the lives of their poor, poor children are the only ones at stake? An unemployed young person is a special kind of burden to society. For all the airtime devoted to food stamps, welfare, and health care, the exorbitant crime costs of jobless youth dwarf anything else—more than $11,000 of nearly $14,000 in tax dollars per young person. And since the young and jobless earn less later in life than employed youth, the lost tax revenue and economic stimulus over time is exponential. This kind of crisis puts government's inaction over jobs and education into stark relief. It's not just our bleak future previous generations should be worrying about—it's theirs, too.