Biodiversity Loss - It Will Make You Sick

12.05.08 - 18:45 ... source : United Nations Environement Programme - UNEP

... "Sustaining Life" Identifies Huge Losses to Medical Science from the Decline and Extinction of the World's Nature-Based Assets Singapore/Nairobi, 24 April - A new generation of antibiotics, new treatments for thinning bone disease and kidney failure, and new cancer treatments may all stand to be lost unless the world acts to reverse the present alarming rate of biodiversity loss a new landmark book says. The natural world holds secrets to the development of new kinds of safer and more powerful pain-killers; treatments for a leading cause of blindness- macular degeneration- and possibly ways of re-growing lost tissues and organs by, for example studying newts and salamanders. But, the experts warn that we may lose many of the land and marine-based life forms of economic and medical interest before we can learn their secrets, or, in some cases, before we know they exist. The new book, 'Sustaining Life', is the most comprehe ...» Next (HTML)