Video Of A Polar Bear Almost Dying Due To Global Warming Is Hearbreakingly Painful To Watch

Dear Donald Trump,

This one is for you and everyone else who agrees with you calling global warming a “hoax”. I have something to tell you.

The Encyclopedia defines global warming as the “overall, long-term increase in the retention of the sun’s heat around the Earth“. The world is being blanketed by greenhouse gases especially CO₂ and methane which are rising at an unprecedented speed due to the accelerating burning of fossil fuels started in the Industrial Revolution.

Paul Nicklen is a marine biologist and photojournalist who specialises in the Arctic and Antarctica. He is the co-founder of the Sea Legacy and is a contributor for National Geographic magazine.

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While in the Arctic with the @Sea_Legacy expedition crew a few months ago, @CristinaMittermeier and I documented a starving polar bear roaming through an abandoned Inuit camp along the shores of Baffin Island. A noted bear biologist could not pinpoint exactly what had caused this bear to starve to death. We do know that he didn’t have any visible wounds and that he was not old. At one time, this bear would have been a big healthy male, like the beautiful bear pictured here. Many of you asked if we could have saved the starving bear or euthanized him to ease his pain. Thank you for all your engagement and for caring about these bears as much as I do. The truth—which is hard to hear—is that he was on his last legs. His muscles had atrophied beyond repair. Plus, it would have been highly illegal to feed him or approach him. Obviously, we could not euthanize him, for legal, cultural and personal reasons. Instead of becoming angry or hopeless, we must work harder for solutions. There is hope for the remaining population of 25,000 polar bears. It’s up to all of us to change our habits if we want to see results. Click the link in my bio to learn more about these solutions and how they will work towards drawdown, where the warming of the planet finally stops, and reverses.

A post shared by Paul Nicklen (@paulnicklen) on Dec 6, 2017 at 10:21am PST

Paul has dedicated his life to the conservation of marine animals and to save their habitat. So everytime someone says climate change is an unproven fact, please think of the ice caps melting.

One such species are the polar bears who have officially been considered “threatened” since 2008 under the Endangered Species Act. This is all thanks to the ongoing loss of their icy habitats in the Arctic regions. Talking about climate change, Paul says,

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“The dance we do when we speak about climate change is exhausting. Some people will simply never believe, despite irrefutable scientific evidence, bizarre weather events, and unprecedented natural disasters.”

So, esteemed people who think global warming isn’t their personal problem, please think of these animals suffering due to the problems we as mankind have created.

The loss of ice in their natural habitats is known to affect these creatures directly. They rely on platforms of ice to reach their prey and can essentially not feed in these changed climatic circumstances. Paul posted this photo and said,

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We did not want to get too close to him. I did not want him using his last ounce of energy in trying to avoid us. It took him a long time and a lot of effort to be able to stand up only to collapse again. We let him be. It was one of the hardest decisions I have faced in a long time. I want the images to be able to tell his story. I want to be able to tell the story of his species. He was once a huge male polar bear and now he is a bag of bones, reduced to skin hanging loosely off of his once massive frame. He will be dead soon and I want him to go in peace after living a life as a great polar nomad. We cannot prove that he is in this condition because of a lack of sea ice but is it a glimpse into the future as ice reaches its lowest extent in recorded history? I hear a lot of suggestions from people like “let’s take polar bears to Antarctica so they can eat penguins” or “let’s put out styrofoam platforms so they can be on the ocean”. These suggestions are irrational but it does mean that people do care. The only way polar bears can be saved is by reducing our global carbon footprint and finding renewable energy. It breaks my heart to see this but our team at @sea_legacy is shifting into high gear to continue connecting the world to our ailing marine ecosystems. #MPA #keepoilexplorationoutofthearctic #climatechangeisreal #bethechange #riseup #hedoesnotspeakforme #love #beauty #hungry

A post shared by Paul Nicklen (@paulnicklen) on Aug 14, 2017 at 12:02pm PDT

And this is why revered people when you think the planet is yours to destroy and yours to stretch to its very limit, maybe think once about the price everyone else is paying for our greed.

Paul shared the entire video of the polar bear starving, dying and wandering aimlessly for food on a foreign terrain. He said he was crying while filming and it truly is soul-crushing, heart-wrenching and simply devastating.

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My entire @Sea_Legacy team was pushing through their tears and emotions while documenting this dying polar bear. It’s a soul-crushing scene that still haunts me, but I know we need to share both the beautiful and the heartbreaking if we are going to break down the walls of apathy. This is what starvation looks like. The muscles atrophy. No energy. It’s a slow, painful death. When scientists say polar bears will be extinct in the next 100 years, I think of the global population of 25,000 bears dying in this manner. There is no band aid solution. There was no saving this individual bear. People think that we can put platforms in the ocean or we can feed the odd starving bear. The simple truth is this—if the Earth continues to warm, we will lose bears and entire polar ecosystems. This large male bear was not old, and he certainly died within hours or days of this moment. But there are solutions. We must reduce our carbon footprint, eat the right food, stop cutting down our forests, and begin putting the Earth—our home—first. Please join us at @sea_legacy as we search for and implement solutions for the oceans and the animals that rely on them—including us humans. Thank you your support in keeping my @sea_legacy team in the field. With @CristinaMittermeier #turningthetide with @Sea_Legacy #bethechange #nature #naturelovers This video is exclusively managed by Caters News. To license or use in a commercial player please contact [email protected] or call +44 121 616 1100 / +1 646 380 1615”

A post shared by Paul Nicklen (@paulnicklen) on Dec 5, 2017 at 8:52am PST

This is how global warming kills, slowly and painfully. It is a brutal murder which this innocent animal did not deserve.

And don’t worry President of the United States, there’s a reckoning coming for us all. I just hope you’re here when our homes, food and everything we need to sustain is snatched away and we perish bit by bit.