A polar bear in agony becomes the symbol of climate change

"That's what people need to understand when scientists talk about polar bear extinction." Canadian photographer Paul Nicklen, who works for the American magazine "National Geographic" has posted shocking images on his Instagram account. The video, already seen more than a million times, shows a particularly thin polar bear on Baffin Island in Canada. The animal appears exhausted, seeking food to survive. In a last effort, we see him dig into a trash before lying on the ground, foaming mouth.
Paul Nicklen and several of his colleagues, members of the Sea Legacy association, filmed these images at the end of the summer, arriving on the island located more than 400 kilometers west of Greenland. "This scene breaks my heart, it still haunts me. (...) This is what starvation looks like," the photographer says on his Instagram account.
The team told "National Geographic" to be "there, crying" in the face of this tragic scene.
"We filmed while tears ran down our cheeks."
An alert message
Through this video, the photographer tries to alert the world to the impact of global warming on species. It thus directly links the fate of the animal to the climatic phenomenon:
"As temperatures rise and the ice melts, polar bears lose access to their main source of food: seals."
However, as explained by the Mashable website, the picture as dramatic as it is, should not be perceived as a general truth. If the state of health of the bear seems alarming, "this is probably due to a combination of different things, the animal could simply be very old," says biologist Todd Atwood at the US site.
A development that does not hide the risks that weigh on the species, as underlined by Paul Nicklen, which could quickly be endangered once the ice of the Arctic completely melted. Thus, as Slate notes, this video "should rather function as a warning, see a prediction if nothing is done to fight against the emission of greenhouse gases". In sum, if man does nothing to change the course of history, these exceptional images could become the norm.