Today, Cuba still imports about 60% of its domestic food requirement, making it highly vulnerable to price increases, changes in food supply and the impacts of natural disasters.
The FAO announced it was launching a special facility to help countries reduce risk and limit impacts of natural disasters in food production sectors.
"The increasing impacts of natural disasters, as seen this year, are a stark reminder of the lives and livelihoods at risk.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition, a trade group of oil and gas companies, finances studies by Dr. Considine and Dr. Watson on the economic impacts of natural gas development.
It built on decades of work in developing countries by its director, Michael H. Glantz, a political scientist who has focused on the societal impacts of natural climate extremes and changes driven by accumulating greenhouse gases.
Mr. Gilfillan, the E.P.A. spokesman, said the e-mail exchange — which was shown to him for comment — did not reflect the agency's efforts to understand the impacts of natural gas extraction better.
New York State environmental officials commissioned a study of impacts of natural gas hydraulic fracturing from a consulting firm that counts oil and gas companies among its clients and that could gain business from increased drilling in the state.
"The increasing impacts of natural disasters, as seen this year, are a stark reminder of the lives and livelihoods at risk," Jack Hayes, director of NOAA's National Weather Service, said in a statement.
Re "Regulation Lax as Gas Wells' Tainted Water Hits Rivers" ("Drilling Down" series, front page, Feb. 27): Your article clearly demonstrates the vast amount of uncertainty concerning the environmental impacts of natural gas drilling in the shale deposits throughout the United States.
The Worldwatch Institute and Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors recently analyzed the full greenhouse impacts of natural gas and coal — from the well or mine to the power plant — and the work supports other studies pointing to a large and clear climate advantage from gas as a source of electricity.
Modeling the impacts of natural disasters on human capital in a comprehensive manner is not straightforward.
