Starving Polar Bear Video Warns Of Impending Extinction

Emaciated and weak, a starving polar bear staggers across a landscape and rummages through rusted trash cans in a video posted by National Geographic showing the dire conditions some of these animals are forced to live through.

"This is what climate change looks like," text over the video reads. Some, however, have criticized National Geographic's linkage of the images of the bear to climate change.

"When scientists say bears are going extinct, I want people to realize what it looks like," said Paul Nicklen, who recorded the images for National Geographic. He discovered the animal on the Baffin Islands in Canada.

The video has gripped the public, garnering more than 8 million views on Twitter alone and more than 230,000 retweets.

"I want the images to be able to tell his story," Nicklen said of the polar bear in a an Instagram post. "I want to be able to tell the story of his species."

He continued: "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."

“That bear is starving, but (in my opinion) it’s not starving because the ice suddenly disappeared and it could no longer hunt seals,” tweeted wildlife biologist Jeff Higdon. "To consider this bear to be in any way representative of the bears in the population, whichever one it's from, would be incorrect and misleading."

The National Post notes, additionally, that researchers believe that polar bear populations in the Baffin islands are relatively stable. Nevertheless, there is widespread agreement that in the long term, climate change does pose a threat to polar bear survival.

In January, NASA reported that 2016 had been the hottest year on record. It was the third year in a row to break that same record. Decades of massive carbon emissions from human activity have contributed to a warming climate, scientists say, which puts pressure on animals that depend on fragile ecosystems, like the polar bear.

While the increase of a few degrees may not seem like much, researchers who study climate warn that even changes of just a few degrees in average temperatures over the long term have a profound impact. High temperatures means melting glacial ice, which can lead to higher sea levels and wipe out inhabited areas of land. Broader changes to the climate can also result in more adverse weather events, like hurricanes and droughts. The Environmental Protection Agency has connected climate change to increasing ocean acidity, one of many effects that may lead to unpredictable consequences for the world and for human and animal life.

"The only way polar bears can be saved is by reducing our global carbon footprint and finding renewable energy," Nicklen wrote.

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include criticism of the video's claims about the polar bear.

Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images