CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Nordic-accented CEO of BP said the company cares about "the little people." The comment made folks angry. However, in a different context, "the little people" of the oceans of the world are what keep the planet alive.

These microorganisms, called "phytoplankton," are the greenery of the seas. They are tiny plants that grow and reproduce near the ocean's surface, where they take sunlight, just like land-based plants, and turn it into life energy via photosynthesis.

Phytoplankton, most forms of which are invisible to the human eye, are like all green plants, eating carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen. Phytoplankton are so pervasive in the shallow parts of our oceans, such as the Gulf of Mexico, that they are responsible for 40 percent of the oxygen we breathe.

Phytoplankton, the ocean's "little people," arguably are the things that REALLY keep global warming in check, by consuming gigantic amounts of carbon dioxide -- far more "greenhouse gas" than man can produce via his industrial processes.

Additionally, phytoplankton are the basis for all ocean life. It is the phytoplankton that feed the tiny larger creatures, still microscopic, that feed larger animals. Eventually, this food chain produces the mollusks and fishes, the sharks and the whales, and next, the birds and mammals depending on seafood are fed. All thanks to phytoplankton.

So, without phytoplankton we would have rampant global warming, insufficient oxygen to survive, and the food chain is kaput.

In 1988, DuPont and other companies making chlorofluorocarbons, "Freon" and other name brands, voluntarily stopped making these chemicals, which once were used for refrigeration and aerosol propellants. What could cause businesses to voluntarily cease production of this valuable multi-billion-dollar-per-year product? The fear driving this unusually moral business decision was the proof that chlorofluorocarbons were causing a hole in our atmospheric protection against excess ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

Huge holes in the ozone layer produced by destruction of ozone by chlorofluorocarbons opened up, particularly over Antarctica and New Zealand. Such holes killed phytoplankton. Scary, scary stuff. If the holes grew larger, the world's phytoplankton could be threatened.

Now we see in the Gulf of Mexico that oil is killing gigantic quantities of phytoplankton. This, not dead fish and oil-soaked birds, is the really bad story of the oil spill. Destruction of the phytoplankton will decimate the food chain, affect the delicate global weather balance and potentially even affect oxygen supply.

So, the CEO of BP SHOULD care about the "little people" of the oceans: the phytoplankton, and we all should swallow hard and realize our thirst for oil is killing us all -- sometimes in gradual ways we cannot even see with the naked eye.

Skaggs, a retired chemical industry lobbyist formerly of West Virginia, lives in Gulf Shores, Ala.