Page 2 - C Mark Eakin News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

HONOLULU —  As muddy rainwater surged from Hawaii’s steep seaside mountains and inundated residential communities last month, the damage caused by flooding was obvious — houses were destroyed and businesses swamped, landslides covered highways and raging rivers and streams were clogged with debris. But extreme rain events predicted to become more common with human-caused global warming not only wreak havoc on land — the runoff from these increasingly severe storms also threatens Hawaii’s coral reefs. “These big events are the ones that have the greatest damage because they are...

“Given this climate change or global warming, as we have seen over the last hundred years, the atmospheric water vapor pressure is increasing,” said Chu. “We have some evidence showing that we already have some increasing, very intense rain.” Coral reefs make up much of Hawaii's nearshore ocean ecosystem and are critical to the state's economy. Hawaii's reefs protect populated shorelines from massive ocean swells and storm surges from tropical storms — a benefit the U.S. Geological Survey valued at more than $860 million a year. Credit: AP In this Nov. 23, 2003, photo provided by Ku...