First, the video was filmed in late August, during the snowless months in the tundra, and then released in mid-December.
Second, bears die. Everything dies. Capturing a dying bear on film doesn’t “prove” global warming.
Here’s a great quote:
“Fake news for a good cause can backfire and shred your credibility. That’s something nobody who’s concerned about the environment can afford to forget,” Margaret Wente of the Globe and Mail, wrote in an opinion piece on the subject.
Now the article:
The viral video showing an emaciated and starving bear desperately searching for food has garnered massive attention around the world, but in the six days since its publication serious doubts have emerged among the scientific and indigenous communities.
Nunavut polar bear monitor Leo Ikakhik has been surveying the animal populations on the western shore of the Hudson Bay, Canada in the periphery of the Arviat community, for the last seven years, collaborating with organizations such as the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). His work involves harm reduction and conservation efforts; essentially limiting human contact with the polar bears.
“I wasn’t totally surprised. These things happen,” Ikakhik told CBC Radio. “Mother Nature is going to do part of that. You know, it’s just part of the cycle. Everybody probably was shocked to see a really skinny bear, but this is not my first time seeing something like this.”
The pushback against the video from the indigenous community has been strong.
Now from a biologist, not a photographer:
“The video shows what appears to be an old male in declining health, but clear clinical signs of starvation aren’t obvious (e.g. convulsions),” polar bear biologist Andrew Derocher told The National Post. Derocher believes the bear may have succumb to an aggressive form of bone cancer. “Bears can respond to improved conditions: We’ve followed bears that went from bone racks to obese over a few months,” said Derocher.