A generation of treatments for diseases ranging from cancer to kidney failure might be lost unless the erosion of biodiversity in sea and on land is reversed, according to the authors of a new book.

Experimental treatments can be derived from chemicals made by frogs, bears and salamanders, for example, but Sustaining Life, whose lead authors, Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein, are from Harvard, warns that the rapid loss of species from pollution and climate change is threatening these efforts.