Thread by @Alex_Verbeek

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1/6.
Today is #WorldPangolinDay

#Pangolins are likely the most trafficked wild animal in the world, they need our protection.

Last week I published this #AlexNote. I know they may be difficult to read on some devices, so I will add the text in tweets in thread.

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2/6. We face two existential challenges. Unlike just five years ago, most people will now recognize climate change as one of those. But the other, the loss of nature and biodiversity, seems to get less attention. However, ‘their’ extinction may quite well be ‘our’ extinction.
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3/6. You may have heard Einstein’s quote on the extinction of bees, that we have only four years left on earth if they go extinct. Like many of his quotes, it is very unlikely that he has ever said this.

I have heard scientists say that the one thing they fear more than
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4/6. climate change is a pandemic by a deadly, contagious, virus.

These weeks, the world watches in fear the spread of the coronavirus. Somehow it was transferred from bats to humans. Now some Chinese researchers say that the endangered pangolins may be the missing link in
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5/6. this transmission, but it is too soon to know this for sure.

What we do know for sure is that pangolins don’t belong on markets. Not in Wuhan, not in China, not anywhere. All eight pangolin species are protected under international law. But illegal trade is growing.
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6/6. It is time for another Einstein quote on pangolins, it may convince more people to save them, and thus, save us.