Hawaii

This fact sheet contains information on the causes and effects of climate change in Hawaii. Topics of interest include human health, agriculture, forests, hydrology, and ecosystems.

The article summarizes the issues that Hawaii will be dealing with in the future due to the changing climate. Some issues included are erosion, death of coral reefs, and loss of fresh water.

Temperature, rainfall patterns, sea level and ocean chemistry, to name but a few, will move beyond the range of our experience, and planning effective conservation will increasingly depend on predictive models and assessments rather than knowledge and data from the past.

This fact sheet summarizes the natural resources that are at risk from climate change.

This fact sheet summarizes the affects that climate change is having on Hawaii, such as ocean acidification and sea level rise.

Warmer oceans are leading to increased coral bleaching and disease outbreaks and changing distribution of tuna fisheries. Freshwater supplies will become more limited on many islands. Coastal flooding and erosion will increase. Mounting threats to food and water security, infrastructure, health, and safety are expected to lead to increasing human migration.

Many landowners have begun to ask how their forest management strategy affects the carbon within their forest and thus the forest’s ability to mitigate climate change. Every strategy has its tradeoffs; therefore, to meet all of society’s needs, we will ultimately need a mix of passive and active strategies across the region.

The tool provides a rapid and simple process to assess forest resiliency. This publication contains background information on important characteristics of resilient and healthy forests and examples of potential adaptation strategies. It is accompanied by a scorecard to be used in the field to evaluate the resiliency of a forest.

In this report, we describe several climate-driven problems that are projected to affect, or are already affecting, particular wildlife species and ecosystems, and solutions that conservation groups are implementing to help plants and animals respond and adapt. These projects are tangible examples of climate-informed conservation, and can serve as inspiration for others grappling with similar issues.