The Death of Phytoplankton, and all the rest of us....

People don't seem to understand that destruction of "the" environment is destruction of "Our" Environment.. and that means Our destruction, too. Those of Us, homo sapiens sapiens, who are privileged enough (by wealth, education, personal power, etc.) to make a difference in Our World, the one We all live in, the only one We've got... have largely become so removed from the realities of Nature around Us that it's easy to forget Our very lives depend upon it. Our air, water, food do not come from big man-made factories and stores. They come from Nature. And when We poison Nature to death (in the form of phytoplankton, honey bees, and the very land-air-water required for all life here and all that We depend upon to stay alive), then We will die, too. Our own reckless ruthless actions have compromised Our planet and Our health to disastrous levels already. But without Oxygen, all life forms We know are in dire peril. And that include all of Us. Whatever else we might think we can "live without" in this world, Oxygen is not one of them. So Our Earth, and all of Us with it, may not perish with a bang or a boom but with a choking gasp for oxygen. How ironic that the death of one of the smallest most primal life forms may be the one that brings down the whole mighty edifice of life here....
"Phytoplankton are the basis of the entire marine food chain, and have an important role in the global carbon cycle. Through photosynthesis, they produce around half of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere and drive the 'biological pump' that fixes 100 million tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide a day into organic material, which then sinks to the ocean floor when the phytoplankton die, or are grazed and digested." (the journal Nature; http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100728/full/news.2010.379.html)