Global warming concerns are far-reaching - literally - the term “global” is apropos for a good reason. Our attention in North America has been, in part (for North Americans), focused on the industrial and commercial impact of consumption; greenhouse gas emissions, energy usage, deforestation, ozone layer depletion and the like - significant factors that have a contributing affect on the delicate ecosystem we call planet Earth. Let us turn our eyes elsewhere and acknowledge readily the events that are signaling concerns of global warming trends. Now, Antarctica beckons, as there too, indications of destabilizing ice forms and sheets reinforce the notion that even in the so-called "remote places," climatic change is evident and a cause for study, investigation and concern.

Scientists have recently examined this relatively small loss of Antarctic ice cover noting that even this tiny amount of ice loss is significant because until now, researchers have found that ice loss had been limited to the most northern extent of the frigid, southernmost continent.

In this AP photo from 2002, The Larsen B ice shelf, which has existed since the last Ice Age, is beginning to collapse.

The rate of ice loss that has ramped up in this area has also piqued the interest of scientists, although temperature fluctuations have stayed within seasonal norms. With this ice loss, sea levels rise and could have a devastating impact on coastlines in the Southern Hemisphere. Flooding, mudslides, and the effect of coastal erosion and on agriculture in developing nations are very real disasters that have occurred and are ripe to occur with perhaps heightened future examples – perhaps on a very short timeline.

The cause and effect relationship here is one that has motivated supporters and detractors on both sides. More important than the discussions and arguments that have inundated the media is whether or not these findings by scientists will motivate those who have an interest in protecting this planet, and those who are in positions of power to do so will in fact turn their efforts to a proactive end. Will it take a catastrophic degeneration of BOTH ice caps and blatant chaotic repercussion that affects humankind, before a region, localized, or far-away climatologically event re-shapes attitudes towards our world’s dynamic health complex?

Look close and far for the evidence knowing that with this latest finding, the notion of global warming is apparently far-reaching, far beyond the horizon…at the ends of the Earth.