'Soul-crushing' video of starving polar bear goes viral

Denying a link between human activity and global warming is a bit like denying the existence of gravity or still claiming the earth is flat. There's so much evidence.

The ice caps are melting and that's destroying eco-systems. I really don't know how you could possibly argue with that point.

This video is a textbook example of the impact of global warming, yet still people deny its existence. The population of polar bears is declining and has declined over recent years.

Denying a link between human activity and global warming is a bit like denying the existence of gravity or still claiming the earth is flat. There's so much evidence.

The ice caps are melting and that's destroying eco-systems. I really don't know how you could possibly argue with that point.

This video is a textbook example of the impact of global warming, yet still people deny its existence. The population of polar bears is declining and has declined over recent years.

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I don't see a single point where he ever denies a link between human activity and global warming, did you even bother to read what he said? Of course you didn't, you were too busy with your video of how nature works that has become Facebook fodder for mass amounts of people to become collectively 'upset' so they have something to moan about.

I fully believe in global warming. Most people couldn't give a toss about normal bears; polar bears are much more heavily publicised as 'cute' and people pay more attention to them because of this. Think about the seals they eat, what if this was a video of a mutilated seal dying due to a polar bear attack, or a seal dying of starvation without being attacked, just like the video of the polar bear?

The fact that polar bears' eco-systems are being destroyed, along with many other species, is an unarguable fact. The poster claimed polar bears were increasing in number, which is quite simply untrue. Polar bears are declining in number and are projected to decline susbtantially further. This video demonstrated how polar bears are having to travel in land in a desperate search for food due to to the collapse of their own eco-system. The ice caps are melting and with it will go the existence of all sorts of species.

The point you make on seals seems rather disingenuous. The animal kingdom works very different to ours. Animals aren't in the position we are to go vegetarian. Animals eat each other for survival, we eat animals out of choice.

Polar bears are a particularly beautiful species of animal and it's really rather awful that our actions are destroying their eco-systems, and that so many people just don't seem to care at all. Some even still deny global warming.

Read my edited post, it perfectly explains your last paragraph. You 'care' about this because your mind has been directed to from a young age. My point about the seal is fine, would a video of the same thing happening to a seal provoke the same reaction as the polar bear? Their ecosystems are being destroyed as well yet you don't care about that because they're not as hyped as polar bears.

As Hirsty97 said, it's perfectly possible for an animal to be 'threatened' and have their numbers increase, regardless of global warming. He's provided many links with credible evidence and you have provided nothing apart from your media-engineered response. You wouldn't give a toss if this was a forest bear instead; people tend to care more if it's fluffy, lives somewhere cold and has been on the TV more. Global warming's effects reach outside of cold climates but that doesn't sell as many stories.

There's a clear difference between a polar bear starving to death because of human actions, and a polar bear eating a seal in order to survive. The seal's eco-systems aren't being destroyed. An eco-system relates to the relationship between a species and the non living components of their environment.

The numbers of polar bears aren't increasing though, they are decreasing and are projected to significantly decrease further. Of course I'd care if it was a forest bear starving to death due to human actions. Your assertion that I would not is neither here nor there.

The video of the polar bear, more than anything, shows the impact of global warming. Even forgetting the 'fluffy' polar bear aspect, the video shows that global warming is happening.

At a time when the US President and much of the Republican party denies global warming is happening, it's a rather important video to show that it very much is.

'They're 'beautiful' creatures so therefore me and the rest of the Facebook brigade are now up in arms about the whole thing'. Thank you for being such a perfect representation what is wrong with people in this world and exactly what not to be.

So how old was this bear then?

Poor *******s

You're being rather petty.

The video was to show the impact that global warming has, especially at a time when a surprisingly large number of people, including the President of the US claim that global warming is not happening.

People are not just opposed to global warming because of polar bears, but because of the impact it is having on our planet. The video was a mere symbol of the impact it is having.

Bizarrely you decided to insert a non issue into the debate and predictably turned it into a 'political correctness/liberal/ social media gone mad' rant. Then even more strangely you seemed to suggest it was okay to destroy polar bear's habitats because they eat seals.

Should we not care about the impact that global warming is having on the planet?

He would rip you to pieces and gobble you up for dinner without a second thought if he could..

on that basis I find it hard to feel particually sorry for them.....

I never said I don't care about global warming. I fully believe in global warming and understand the impact it is having on the planet. My issue is that you are just focusing on one of the thousands of the impacts (polar bears) because you've been taught from a young age that they're cute so they're therefore worth caring about more.

Do you watch videos about fires in America, heavy rain, and acification, then launch a thread about that? No because they don't sell as many stories and bring in enough revenue from advertising. You've chosen to focus on one issue because it makes you feel bad without knowing the facts, along with the rest of the Facebook brigade. Look at the links Hirsty97 provided about global warming and polar bears and you'll see their plight isn't as bad as the media would have you believe. As others have said, we don't know the age or the individual circumstances of the bear the film crew just happened to decide to film. For all we know this particular bear was chosen to make a big deal in the media so people like you would coo over it and make a fuss, resulting in additional advertising revenue from those who profit. Global warming may have pkayed a small part in this bear's demise along with other factors that made much more of a difference, obviously thr film crew isn't going to show us those.

I do find it humorous when people on an internet forum try to psycho-analyse everyone. You can spare me the 'here's your life story' pseudo analysis.

The point of the video was to show both the existence and impact of global warming at a time when large number of people, including many in powerful positions don't accept that it is happening. The polar bear video was a mere symbol of the much wider phenomenon.

Of course I care about other animal species and the destruction humans have caused to their habitats and eco-systems. I don't really see why showing the impact that global warming has had on polar bears, negates that. We absolutely know that the ice caps are melting and that their eco-systems are being destroyed. We also know that their numbers are declining.

Then you decided to chuck in a load of tangential issues to effectively try and say that 'if you don't make a thread on every single ill in the world' then you can't possibly be genuine in your concern over this'. By that logic, can I not post a thread about homelessness if I haven't made one about malaria?

If you don't disagree that global warming is happening and you don't disagree about the impact it is having on the planet, then I am really struggling to see what your issue with the thread is.

Somehow I don't think a video about earlier flowering of plants or acidification of the oceans (both very important issues caused by global warming) could be described as 'soul-crushing' like this video has been. If the creators really wanted to highlight the effects of global warming they could have focused on 4 or 5 key aspects including the polar bear, oh wait that wouldn't sell as much would it? The whole video is about a polar bear because pity and cute sells as idiots have let themselves be brainwashed into thinking this, other things don't sell. The more people who watch the video the more advertising revenue is made, it's entirely because of the polar bear and whoever made the video knows this.

Ask people what global warming is doing to the planet and the vast majority of them will only say rising temperatures and melting ice caps resulting in animal deaths (which as already stated is made out to be worse than it is and they won't know or care about rising sea levels), they're oblivious to everything else because everything else isn't profitable. We should be worrying much more about other issues related to global warming than bears dying but again those issues don't sell and the population continues to live in ignorance while lining the pockets of the people who produce and sponsor these videos.

The video below is really hard to watch. It shows a starving polar in an ice-less habitat. Still, amazingly despite video evidence such as this, people claim that global warming is a myth and that eco-systems aren't being destroyed.

“As temperatures rise and sea ice melts, polar bears lose access to the main staple of their diets – seals,” the video noted. “Starving, and running out of energy, they are forced to wander into human settlements for any source of food.”




[video="youtube;oiC_HG3u-nk"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiC_HG3u-nk[/video]

Disingenous and manipulative drivel designed to tug at the heart strings of emotional retards who never bother to fact check.

There is not one shred of evidence to suggest this bear is starving due climate change. You can speak to any climate scientist, even the most ardent proponents of anthropogenic climate change, and they will still tell you they are not sure what effect a long term, gradual decrease in Arctic ice will have on polar bears, and we wont see any noticeable effects for many, many decades yet.

I will also point out that Arctic ice levels fluctuate significantly through the course of a year naturally. In summer months, the volume of ice can reduce by up to 50%, so polar bears are already well adapted and capable of dealing with radical changes in their environments. Melting ice is no big deal for a polar bear, they are phenomenal swimmers, capable of swimming literally hundreds of miles in search of new solid ground.

In all likeliness, this is just an old, sick or injured bear that is no longer capable of hunting. This is the primary cause of death for most predators on Earth. It's not nice to see, but that's nature I'm afraid, it's a harsh and cruel mistress.

The link refers to one subpopulation I already said there are some subpopulations that are at risk but in aggregate their population size is stable/increasing. In 2010,

Climates always change by glacial and interglacial cycles that occur over thousands of years, in the past 100,000 years there have been periods where there have been much less and more ice than in recent history. Polar bears survived that. I'm far from an expert on climatology but I can be so modest to say I know a fair bit about polar bears.

I told you that they were vulnerable and not endangered. People have been wrong in predicting polar bear population in the past who's to say they won't be wrong again? I.e it was estimated in the 1980s that the Hudson Bay population would decline to around 600 by 2011, yet today there are over 1000. *

I don't know why you're upset about this I think it's a great relief to know that polar bears aren't quite as endangered as sensational news reports would lead you to believe. A polar bear is a highly adaptable and resilient animal; I'm more concerned about other animals. If the WWF predicts with 70% confidence that the polar bear will have its population reduced by 30% come 2050, that means the chances of them being extinct by 2050 are virtually zero.

https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/truth-about-polar-bears