Warming a threat to birds, coral reef

Honolulu Advertiser: Hawai'i has some advantages over other areas when it comes to climate change, but the state's native forest bird and coral reef populations could be severely damaged, a climate change biologist said this week.

Conservation International scientist Lee Hannah said that while projected temperature change in Hawai'i is less than elsewhere, native species could still suffer from climate change. But he also said extinctions of species in Hawai'i and around the world are not inevitable and that policymakers need to limit greenhouse gas emissions and improve conservation strategies. "It's certainly not a case where all is lost," he said. "Climate change is another factor, and we need to respond to it, but it's certainly not a reason to give up hope because we have good conservation tools. We just need to employ them in ways that take climate change into account."

Hannah was among the scientists who spoke at this week's Forum on Climate Change in Hawai'i, which was sponsored by the Hawai'i Conservation Alliance, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey….

Ka'anapali from the air, shot by Mike Johnston from Atlanta, Wikimedia Commons