[Image of the day] An emaciated polar bear is a brutal reality of climate change

On December 5, Paul Nicklen, a photographer and a contributor to the National Geographic magazine, shared a video of an emaciated polar bear he had shot in the upper reaches of Canada. The bear is starving. Polar bears eat seals which they hunt on Arctic ice fields, but rising temparatures due to global warming has meant their hunting fields are disappearing. 

The video, which has since gone viral, shows the skeletal animal rising up on unsteady feet – probably because the muscles of its leg are atrophying – moving wearily ahead and rummaging a trashcan for some food. It then falls back exhausted. 

The dying bear is a terrifying reality of climate change.  

“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," Nicklen wrote. "This is what starvation looks like. The muscles atrophy. No energy. It's a slow, painful death."

People are still raising questions as to where such scenarios and global warming can be linked definitively. Yes, there is no definite connection, Nicklen admitted. Yet, he adds: "When scientists say bears are going extinct, I want people to realise what it looks like. Bears are going to starve to death. This is what a starving bear looks like."

Some people have also asked him why he had not intervened to save the bear. He said he was ill-equipped to do that. He was not carrying seal meat with him, and then, feeding wild polar bears is not legal in Canada.

In 2009, former US vice-president Al Gore had used a cartoon of an exhausted, endlessly swimming polar bear to illustrate the impact humans were having on the sea ice where the bears once hunted.

National Geographic explains why polar bears are the worst sufferers of climate change. For months, they do not eat anything as they wait for the Arctic ice to solidify. With rising temperatures, the water is taking longer to freeze, extending the bears' periods of starvation. 

According to reports, the populations of some 25,000 polar bears in 19 locations worldwide are forecast to decline by as much as a third in the coming decades. As their hunting and breeding grounds shrink, polar bears face an increased threat of extinction.

Also read: How corporate interests dominated UN climate talks