"We Stood There Crying - Filming With Tears Rolling Down Our Cheeks"

[hatrack]

Last edited Fri Dec 8, 2017, 04:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Link to tweet

When photographer Paul Nicklen and filmmakers from conservation group Sea Legacy arrived in the Baffin Islands, they came across a heartbreaking sight: a starving polar bear on its deathbed.

Nicklen is no stranger to bears. From the time he was a child growing up in Canada's far north the biologist turned wildlife photographer has seen over 3,000 bears in the wild. But the emaciated polar bear, featured in videos Nicklen published to social media on December 5, was one of the most gut-wrenching sights he's ever seen. "We stood there crying—filming with tears rolling down our cheeks," he said.

Video shows the polar bear clinging to life, its white hair limply covering its thin, bony frame. One of the bear's back legs drags behind it as it walks, likely due to muscle atrophy. Looking for food, the polar bear slowly rummages through a nearby trashcan used seasonally by Inuit fishers. It finds nothing and resignedly collapses back down onto the ground.

In the days since Nicklen posted the footage, he's been asked why he didn’t intervene. "Of course, that crossed my mind," said Nicklen. "But it's not like I walk around with a tranquilizer gun or 400 pounds of seal meat."

And even if he did, said Nicklen, he only would have been prolonging the bear's misery. Plus, feeding wild polar bears is illegal in Canada. The wildlife photographer says he filmed the bear's slow, beleaguered death because he didn't want it to die in vain. "When scientists say bears are going extinct, I want people to realize what it looks like. Bears are going to starve to death," said Nicklen. "This is what a starving bear looks like."

EDIT

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/polar-bear-starving-arctic-sea-ice-melt-climate-change-spd/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20171208news-starvingpolarbear&utm_campaign=Content&sf175717315=1

[JustAnotherGen]

1. n/t

[bdtrppr6]

2. absolutely terrible

and every step our disastrous current regime is taking will ensure this becomes reality for more than just polar bears. i'm expecting them to revoke any extinction protections along with the shrinking/raping of national monuments.

[hatrack]

3. This is what it looks like. This is reality. This is the future. This is why I post.

God help us all.

[Dalton Mac]

5. No, God DAMN Us All!

Homo sapiens is a cancer on this planet!

[byronius]

4. Jesus Fucking Christ. This is horrible.

[pandr32]

6. The king of arctic beasts dying from starvation

This is all of us as human-caused climate change takes its toll.
So sad to see. We usually don't see images as they drown and must be drowning in huge numbers due to lack of ice and food.
A foreboding picture indeed.

[benld74]

7. Humans are the most vile animals on this planet

[Honeycombe8]

8. OMG. I can't look. OMG. nt

[yardwork]

9. THIS is why we must vote, and not wasted third party votes.

We must go out and vote for Democrats and then hold them accountable. Withholding our votes does nothing.

[angrychair]

10. There is a bigger picture

That isn’t just the fate of that bear...if not us, It is assuredly the fate of our descendants in the not to distant future unless me make dramatic changes we do not have the technology or willpower to make.

Our future is no less bleak than this bear.

[peacebuzzard]

11. Photographing a dying planet

And the incredible, magnificent animals that are disappearing.
These national geo photographers must suffer traumatic syndrome often.
Omg, planet earth is in sos mode, many species will not survive the next few decades.
We will witness a great destruction in our lifetime, something our civilization has never seen.

[RandomAccess]

12. Oh man, I didn't need to see this

Not that I wish you hadn't posted it.

It just tears me up. I love polar bears. I love all animals. And there's so much destruction going on around me -- in my life, in my country and government, in our culture. It's just hard to take. Worst of all is the feeling of all this doom and gloom and feeling like I have so little power to make anything better. Not any freakin' thing.

This is the most brutal photo I've seen.

[annabanana]

13. Humanity put to the test.

Steward or Slaughterer?

We have the Means, can we muster the Will?