A perfect design or perfect accident …?

Another outing and another session of deep thought ~ this time it was about our planet’s position in the universe. Unlike all other planet’s that we currently know about, Earth seems to be the one that is perfectly located ~ why ...?

This pale blue dot of ours occupies a location that is just the perfect distance from the sun, known as the habitual zone, where water does not boil away or freeze solid. If we were just a little closer to the sun, we could have ended up like Venus, a burning hostile world. A little further away we would be like Mars, cold, dry and lifeless.

But it is not all about distance, Earth’s perfect rotation is equally important, it creates day and night, if it was too slow, days would scorch, and nights would freeze, weather systems and winds would be completely chaotic. Then there is the Moon which plays the perfect role by stabilizing the Earth’s tilt, helping to keep our seasons relatively stable. Even within the solar system, we have a giant perfect protector in the form of Jupiter, which deflects many dangerous asteroids that could otherwise head our way.

So, is all of this a perfect design, or just a perfect accident where everything happened to align perfectly...?

Maybe the universe is not perfect, but for us on Earth it could feel like it is, but only we humans on the surface, stopped our wars, unrest and poisoning, of what I believe is a perfect accident.

Today’s pics from the LaHave Islands and Rissers Beach, still searching for that perfect photo ..!!

Now I know ....

For ten years now I have been regular wanderer on Rissers Beach. On most of those outings, I have always wondered about the remnants of what appears to have been a wooden structure at the west end of the beach.

In the hope of learning more, I placed posting on a local community Facebook page, and received back some good responses.

It seems in days of old the nearby community of Petite Rivière had some thriving businesses that depended upon transportation links via the sea. With reference to the satellite image below ~ Often those links were impeded by a sand bank that blocked off the entrance at Mad Brook ~ on the image I have shown (yellow highlight circle) the sand bar as it is now.

At times when the sand bar was in place, created by certain high tides and wind directions, the ships that required access to Petite Rivière had to anchor off shore, and then rely upon smaller vessels to transport goods back and forth.

To solve this ongoing problem, in 1906 at a cost of $10,000, a breakwater was constructed, which kept thirty local men employed for a few months. The position of the breakwater is shown in the satellite image by the straight yellow line

The following image is an extract taken from the Bridgewater Bulletin dated 17 July 1906, which explains the issue, together with the proposed solution by the construction of the breakwater.

 

Below are two photos which shows the 1750' long breakwater in place, the first is from the 1950’s, and the other not long after its completion, around 1906/07 ~ I would like to thank locals Paul Harmon and Kevin Baker for the information and old photos.

Photo taken at the end of the breakwater looking towards Rissers Beach

In addition to looking into all that, this afternoon I thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful outing at Rissers in glorious sunshine ...