by William Allen

About the author: William Allen is a science writer for the St. Louis Post- Dispatch.

Tourists walking the beaches, streets and parks of resort towns [in Hawaii] . . . see an impressive array of lush vegetation and a kaleidoscope of birds.

Exotic-looking papaya and banyan trees, beautiful blossoms of bougainvillea and the sweet smell of jasmine are everywhere. Canaries, cardinals and Saffron finches flitter about.

But this perfect tropical paradise holds a dark secret: None of these plants or animals is native to Hawaii.

Contrary to the myth, when vacationers come to the Hawaiian Islands, they unknowingly enter a zone of mass extinction, not Eden.

An Ecological Catastrophe

The real Hawaii has become the biggest ecological catastrophe in the United States—the nation’s capital of species extinction and endangerment, scientists...