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04/24/2008: "UN official: Biodiversity loss hurts medical research"

The world risks losing new medical treatments for osteoporosis, cancer and other human ailments if it does not act quickly to conserve the planet's biodiversity, a senior United Nations environmental official said Wednesday.

Earth's organisms offer a variety of naturally made chemical compounds with which scientists could develop new medicines, but are under threat of extinction, said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program.

[ Get a feeling of deja vu with news sometimes... But it's a message that need repeating. ]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080423/ap_on_sc/un_biodiversity_medicine