All week, followers of world news have heard cries for their attention from Caracas to Paris, Damascus to Pyongyang, and from Little Rock to “an island in the Pacific.”

News cycles that are dominated by humanity’s buzzing hives can make big, borderless concerns feel a little removed. But a less-noticed story from Canada’s Yukon Territory is worth calling out tonight, too, on the eve of the 47th Earth Day.

Last year, scientists noted that the Slims River, a lake-feeder, had all but run dry because its own source, the Kaskawulsh Glacier, had receded. A couple of days ago, the Monitor’s Wes Williams reported, researchers announced that the glacier had finally shrunk to the point where it has stopped feeding the Slims altogether, its water trickling elsewhere. It was the first modern-day occurrence of a phenomenon called “river piracy.” And it should be a reminder to zoom out and cast an eye, now and then, on our communal home.