Putting a thumb on the weather scale

Kudos to Andrew Cochran, Maritimes Regional Director of the CBC, for agreeing to debate the network’s hyperventilated coverage of routine weather events. We hashed it out in an extended session this morning on CBC Cape Breton’s Information Morning program.

Longtime Contrarian readers know I think Nova Scotia has lost all perspective about weather, working ourselves into a lather over events we would have taken in stride 30 years ago.

The CBC is one link in this chain of timorousness. Environment Canada, which issues daily “statements,”  “advisories,” and “warnings” about routine weather inconveniences, is another.

School officials arbitrarily grant paid holidays to hundreds of public employees on grounds of child safety, with no data to show that school closures make anyone safer, and no consequences for the significant costs their needless caution imposes on society.

That’s my perspective. You can hear Andrew Cochran’s rebuttal in the debate below.