Polar Extinction

Climate change is more noticeable as the years goes on, pushing wildlife towards a possible extinction. With our ice caps in the Arctic melting, a lot of animals will be greatly affected by this problem but I want to talk about a specific specie that is considered an icon when we talk about the Arctic (or Coca Cola), that is the polar bear.

The Ursus maritimus or polar bear is considered a vulnerable specie and according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (or better known as IUCN), it's not an endangered specie like people think. It is believed that an estimate of 21,000 to 31,000 live in the wild. Polar bears can be found in northern Russia, Norway, Greenland and norther Alaska, USA, but up to 80% of the population of polar bears have been found in northern Canada. (Source) If global warming keeps accelerating the melting of the ice caps in the Arctic, the population of polar bears could decrease by two-thirds by the year 2050.

The ice caps of the Arctic are melting at an alarming rate and with it, taking the habitat of the polar bear. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (or NSIDC for short) released a news letter in 2012 saying that the Arctic ice have been on decline by 13% per decade since 1979. A more recent news letter released on October, 2018 it states that the declining rate for the Arctic ice is at a 12.8% per decade, this is the equivalent of loosing 82,300 square kilometers (or 31,800 square miles) per year. It has only improved by 0.2% in the past seven years; we have made almost zero progress to help benefit this immense problem.

SeaLegacy is an organization co-founded in 2014 by Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, both are photographers of National Geographic, combined with decades of experience in conservation and photography. SeaLegacy uses powerful visual storytelling to spread awareness about the threats happening in the ocean with the intention to motivate people to take action.

In late summer of 2017, the conservation group SeaLegacy went on an expedition on Somerset Island where they spotted a starving polar bear. Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, both captured saddening videos and photographs of the starving polar bear. They were able to demonstrate how the effects of global warming will look like, if the effects of climate change keep progressing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JhaVNJb3ag

"We stood there crying—filming with tears rolling down our cheeks" - said Paul Nicklen

This video spread like wildfire all around the world reaching millions with a mixture of emotions towards the starving bear and the two photographers who capture this agonizing moment. A lot of people ask Nicklen on why he didn't do something about the starving bear, "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." Even though that would have been a great idea to help the dying bear, due to the severity of the starvation, helping him just would have prolonged the bears suffering. All they could do at the moment was just to stand there and watch as the bear struggled.

A lot of people misinterpreted the message that Paul Nickel was trying to say when he shot the video because they thought the bear was dying due to the loss of habitat because of global warming, yet others were glad that they were able to show the reality some people are trying to ignore. Until this date, they don't know what cause the polar bear to be in such horrible condition other that was just starving. There were no connection to weather the polar bear was suffering because of global warming or he just had a bad year and luck hunting. The idea behind this storytelling video was to demonstrate the future of what it will look like the habitat of polar bears if we don't do something about our climate change. "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."

For me, this video was my wake up call in 2017 and it should be a wake up moment for everyone to take action on the existing climate change problem that is happening already. Do we really want to keep endangering our planet and have THIS as our future vision?