Forget the Rainforest, Save the Diatoms!
It’s a far stretch from our imaginations to see a campaign by WWF to ‘Save the diatoms’ in place of the ever so cute and much adored panda, for example, however much credit is due to these tiny photosynthesising single-celled organisms as they account for over 1/4 of the world’s oxygen alone. (One study showed that: tropical rainforest fix c. 17.8%; savannas 16.8%, the cultivated areas: 8%; diatoms 23.5%).