RUSH: Over the weekend, the UK Guardian ran a story that went viral. It included a “soul-crushing” video of a starving polar bear that supposedly proves there’s a global warming crisis.

The video is sad. It shows an emaciated bear trying to rummage for food. A “conservation group” recorded it this summer in Canada’s Arctic region. Photographer Paul Nicklen said: “My entire Sea Legacy team was pushing through their tears and emotions while documenting this dying polar bear. This is what starvation looks like! It’s a slow painful death.”

The filmmakers blamed global warming. They said as “temperatures rise and sea ice melts,” polar bears can’t find their main food source: Seals.

Wait. Instead of crying, why not help the bear? “Of course, that crossed my mind,” says Nicklen. But he didn’t have 400 pounds of seal meat handy. Besides, he says, “there was no saving this individual bear.”

Well, here are the facts: Polar bears are not starving en masse; they’re thriving. Another news item two weeks ago documented 200 fat and happy polar bears in the Russian arctic feasting on a whale carcass. The worldwide polar bear population is stable. It’s even increasing in places like Alaska.

Nobody knows why this bear didn’t make it. It could have been sick, which happens in nature. But we do know this: A “soul-crushing” video blaming global warming is total BS, and these people didn’t have the courage to save a starving beast.