Polar bears play with plastic trash in heartbreaking photos - New York Post

Devastating photos of Alaskan polar bears gnawing on plastic waste is the latest harbinger of environmental demise caused by humans.

The heartbreaking photos show a family of polar bears on the bank of a waterway, and the two cubs play tug-of-war with a sludge-filled, plastic gallon container. Other images show the bears with plastic hanging from their mouths or attempting to eat the garbage.

Los Angeles-based photographer Danny Sullivan, who documented the gut-wrenching scene, says he hopes people will see his photos and think, “Wow, we really have to start changing the way we operate.”

The 58-year-old says he was aiding his wife, Shayne McGuire, a photography tour guide, on a trip to Kaktovik, Alaska, in October. The trip, he says, opened his eyes to the far-reaching impact of plastic pollution as well as how climate change contributes to its spread.

“In previous years, that whole area would have been 5 foot under [snow] by then,” explains Sullivan, who adds that the weather there was “a good 5 degrees warmer” than usual for that time of year. In the past, the plastic “would’ve been buried” where the bears couldn’t reach, he tells Media Drum.

Polar bears are considered highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, according to the World Wildlife Federation, especially in terms of diet. While polar bears prey mostly on ringed and bearded seals, as well as fish, birds, whales and eggs, their options have become increasingly limited, so they sometimes resort to “animal carcasses … food waste from human settlements, and even other polar bears in a few instances.”

Mediadrumimages/DannySullivan

But the plastic shouldn’t be there at all, Sullivan laments.

“What was a plastic gallon jug doing out here in far-flung Alaska? It just goes to show that what we’re doing is having an effect everywhere,” he says. “Plastic floats. This could’ve come from anywhere, and now there’s every chance one of these young bears has ingested it.”

Sullivan says he normally would have picked up and properly discarded the rubbish, but approaching the bears would have been too dangerous: “You can’t put yourself in jeopardy.”

“It’s sad, and it’s not the only time we’ve seen litter in the most secluded, beautiful spots that are really in the middle of nowhere,” he says. “This is what we’ve done to the planet and although we have the power to change it, hemp-derived bottles and other plastic substitutions aren’t mainstream yet and the corporations aren’t doing enough.

“We really are on a path to destroy our planet.”

Mediadrumimages/DannySullivan

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