Haleakala National Park in HawaiiPhoto courtesy Simonds via FlickrHawaii’s state legislature established a climate change task force last week to study the potential impacts of rising sea levels, eroding coast lines, ocean acidification, fiercer storms, and other expected affects of climate change, and to suggest response strategies.

Lawmakers overrode a veto by Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, who said the state couldn’t afford the project and that such task forces “study issues but rarely produce tangible results." The bill diverts $50,000 a year from a state tourism fund to support the task force.

In June, the federal government’s major Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States report forecasted severe effects on U.S. Pacific islands if climate change continues unchecked.

From the Hawaii bill:

See also: An editorial on climate change and Hawaii from Friday's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

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The breadfruit tree, which has long provided a dietary staple to residents of South Pacific islands, is in severe decline, experts say, threatened by climate change and, of all things, Spam. Breadfruit trees, with their shallow roots, are particularly vulnerable to storms and cyclones, which have been on the rise in recent years, a trend many attribute to global warming; the trees are also susceptible to rising sea levels and the infiltration of salt water into the soil and water table. At the same time, Pacific islanders, who have cultivated breadfruit trees for at least 3,000 years, have lately turned instead to processed foods such as Spam, leading not only to a drop in the overall number of trees and the disappearance of many local varieties, but also to increasing rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in the region.

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This week was for the birds -- in a good way: Two previously endangered species seem to be enjoying a rebound. The population of the once desperately rare Polynesian Megapode has doubled and the bird could soon be removed from the list of critically endangered species maintained by the World Conservation Union. The species is the Pacific's last megapode -- a large-footed bird that uses hot volcanic ash to incubate its eggs. The successful rebound of the Polynesian Megapode is due to a concerted conservation effort begun in 1993. Meanwhile, scientists in Guyana have discovered a previously unknown population of red siskins, which were thought to be approaching extinction in the wild. The species was once common in the coastal mountains of Venezuela and Colombia, but was decimated by trapping in the 1800s. The Guyana population of red siskins numbers in the thousands -- several times the known population of the birds elsewhere in the wild.

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Climate change was the leading concern at the annual Pacific Island Forum this week, where leaders of small island nations chastised the United States for abandoning the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The islands have an unusually vested interest in the protocol because they face a high risk of being swallowed up by seas swollen from melting ice caps and thermal expansion of ocean waters. The leaders of the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu released a statement at the forum noting their "profound disappointment at the decision of the U.S." The consortium stopped short of chiding Australia, which has also rejected Kyoto on the basis that it would be fatally flawed without U.S. participation. Australia is the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the South Pacific, but it is also one of the largest aid donors to Pacific islands.

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