Radio Interview from my D.C. Trip
I was in Washington D.C. in April speaking to my congressional reps about the Global Conservation Act of 2010.
The trip was organized by the Pew Environmental Group and the Alliance for Global Conservation, which includes Pew as well as Conservation International, the World Wildlife Federation, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Nature Conservancy. It was a great event that I was grateful to be a part of.
As part of the event I was interviewed for a radio spot. Press the play button below to hear the short interview.
I should note that I only meant to say that it’s “possible” that I might get cancer again in 20 years, not necessarily “likely”, as the interview states. Who knows? I hope that won’t happen.
New York Cancer Survivor Fights to Protect Mother Nature’s Cures
April 21, 2010
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NEW YORK – Half of all the pharmaceutical drugs discovered and produced in the last 25 years have ingredients derived from Mother Nature, although there is growing concern that destruction of natural habitat could bring availability of these life-saving drugs to a halt.
David Hahn is a New York cancer survivor who says he can thank a little plant in Madagascar for providing the ingredient needed to make his chemotherapy more effective. Hahn wants to see action to protect such plants and their environment around the world. He points to a bill now in Congress that could help in the future – and in case he faces a relapse.
“This bill itself is not the cure for cancer, but it allows natural areas to be protected long enough for scientists to go out into them and look for the cure that I am going to need 20 years from now.”
The measure (HR 4959) would establish a comprehensive global conservation strategy for the United States. It is intended to improve the effectiveness of our conservation assistance to developing countries.
Jeff Wise, director of global conservation for the Pew Environment Group, says rainforests and coral reefs are home to plants and animals that provide many medical remedies and cures. But he warns that 80,000 rainforest acres are destroyed every day, and 30 percent of the world’s coral reefs already are lost.
“It really is now or never; plants and animals that we get these compounds from that go extinct in these areas, they never come back.”
An estimated one in three Americans is fighting a chronic condition with the help of drugs derived from nature. Hahn says he had never heard of the flower that helped push his cancer into remission.
“A very powerful drug that’s made from the rosy periwinkle flower, indigenous to Madagascar. You know, it turns out there are a ton of drugs out on the market that are derived from natural plants.”
More information about the legislation, called the Global Conservation Act of 2010, is online at www.actforconservation.org.
Mike Clifford, Public News Service – NY
