My entire @Sea_Legacy team was pushing through their tears and emotions while documenting this dying polar bear. It’s a soul-crushing scene that still haunts me, but I know we need to share both the beautiful and the heartbreaking if we are going to break down the walls of apathy. This is what starvation looks like. The muscles atrophy. No energy. It’s a slow, painful death. When scientists say polar bears will be extinct in the next 100 years, I think of the global population of 25,000 bears dying in this manner. There is no band aid solution. There was no saving this individual bear. People think that we can put platforms in the ocean or we can feed the odd starving bear. The simple truth is this—if the Earth continues to warm, we will lose bears and entire polar ecosystems. This large male bear was not old, and he certainly died within hours or days of this moment. But there are solutions. We must reduce our carbon footprint, eat the right food, stop cutting down our forests, and begin putting the Earth—our home—first. Please join us at @sea_legacy as we search for and implement solutions for the oceans and the animals that rely on them—including us humans. Thank you your support in keeping my @sea_legacy team in the field. With @CristinaMittermeier #turningthetide with @Sea_Legacy #bethechange #nature #naturelovers This video is exclusively managed by Caters News. To license or use in a commercial player please contact info@catersnews.com or call +44 121 616 1100 / +1 646 380 1615”

A post shared by Paul Nicklen (@paulnicklen) on

Hundreds of thousands of people have expressed their heartbreak and sorrow over a video (above) of a gaunt polar bear in extreme starvation. Filmed by National Geographic photographers Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier on Baffin Island in Canada’s Arctic in late August, the video serves a dangerous reminder: climate change is very real.

On an almost iceless island, the starving being is struggling to walk as it looks for food. The sight of the polar bear rummaging through a dustbin used by Inuit fishermen is perhaps the most agonising to watch. As the ice melts because of rising temperatures, polar bears are losing access to their staple food.

Sharing the video on Instagram, Nicklen describes it as “a soul-crushing scene that still haunts me”, adding, “We need to share both the beautiful and the heartbreaking if we are going to break down the walls of apathy. This is what starvation looks like.”