QUESTION 3 WHEN

Pollution and ecosystem degradation implies one another in a sense that if there is an
overcontamination of a certain deteriorating substance, which normally exists in nature
in reasonably amounts, at a certain part of the globe in large quantities, especially near
the coastal zones, we may presume that this is most probably due to an industrial activity.
Human-beings started degrading the ecosystem by simply cutting trees presumably at the
ages when the first thermodynamical engine did not exist yet. Since human-beings are
assumingly intelligent in nature, they have always tried to develop the technology at hand,
thus they needed an increasing demand of energy to sustain the new technology. Once
this technology-to-energy-to-technology cycle has started, there was no turning back.
Today, we have new ways to produce energy, to illustrate, nuclear power plants, which
seems hard to work with so as to sustain the compatibility issues with the nature since,
basically, we are not the smart yet; we are simply poor planners. Practically, we degrade
the ecosystem, for example, a neighborhood of a coastal zone in order to obtain the most
out of it; meantime, we pollute the Earth. There are some certain systems in the nature
that can start by itself out of nothing, and that exhibit a cyclic behavior as described above,
the system getting larger in magnitude in no matter what it performs. This type of systems
are by definition positive cyclesonce it starts, it hardly stops. That is exactly what we are
doing to the nature. We remove some certain part of the river for example, by cutting its
natural path in order to collect its energy, while we are depriving another part of the
nature of its life. We degrade the ecosystem, which brings upon pollution, which in turn
causes ecosystem degradation. If we merely focus on the human factor, we may observe
that we started disturbing the nature by infinitesimal amounts at the ages when the
physical sciences took a pace in the Europe so as to lead to the Industrial Revolution. If we
leave the nature by itself, it will destroy itself by, for example, hurricanes and volcanic
activities. Still, the globe indeed behaves in this fashion, yet we survive. Just as we have a
longer lifespan on average when compared to the dark ages, after what we have done and
we will do to damage the Earth, we may observe that it will not go well. To conclude, in
the most general sense of coastal pollution and ecosystem degradation, we see that
whenever we intend to develop a new technology, we require most often that much of
energy, which causes pollution hence ecosystem degradation hence pollution, and so on
[1 billions and billions, 2 introduction to coastal pollution, 3 human actions leading to
coastal degradation].

QUESTION 4 - MECHANISMS
MECHANISM OF POLLUTION
The main source of pollution of the coastal zones is simply the plastic. Here is how [1
coastal pollution a review]: Plastic debris can absorb toxic chemicals from ocean
pollution, therefore poisoning whatever eats it. In fact, plastic pollution is one of the most
serious threats to the ocean. Plastic does not degrade; instead, it breaks down into
progressively smaller pieces, but never disappears. They then attract more debris. It
poses a significant health threat to the various sea creatures, and to the entire marine
ecosystem. Overall, plastic is the main source of pollution in the ocean. The polymers
when exposed to UV radiation in sunlight break into smaller and smaller pieces, but they
are still present as plastic, and they are non-biodegradable in any practical manner. This
persistence of plastic leads to an increasing abundance in the ocean environment, which
makes plastic debris more accessible to plankton and other marine life.
From the Industrial Revolution onwards, human-beings searched for new sources of
energy for new technologies. There are some other sources/disposals of the industry [2
introduction to coastal pollution]: pathogens (bacteria and viruses), oxygen-depleting
substances (sewage, carbon-based wastes, dissolved carbon-based material), toxic
substances heavy metals in carbon-based compounds, nutrients (nitrates and
phosphates), hot water discharge from power plants.
MECHANISM OF ECOSYSTEM DEGRADATION
Oil pollution is the almost inevitable consequence of the dependence of a rapidly growing
population on a largely oil-based technology [1 oil pollution of the ocean]. Oil is the fastest
source of deterioration to the ocean [2 coastal pollution a review]. How: Oil spills suffocate
marine life to death, and leads to behavioral changes and a breakdown in thermal
insulation to those that do survive. Moreover, oil cannot dissolve in water and forms a
thick sludge in the water. This suffocates fish, gets caught in the feathers of marine birds
stopping them from flying and blocks light to photosynthetic aquatic plants.