Montana Needs to Relaunch ‘Blow the Smoke Back to Canada’ Effort

It seems a little early in the season to already be choking on smoke. We typically make it through Independence Day before we start to see the sun blocked out by wildfire smoke. But, wildfires are already raging in Canada. This explains the thick smoke settling into the valleys around the Treasure State.

According to CNBC

Wildfires burning across western Canada have forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes and have prompted some oil and gas companies to curb production as blazes approach pipelines. The fires have burned about 478,000 hectares, or 1,800 square miles, across Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan as of Monday — 10 times the average area burned for this time of year, according to the NASA Earth Observatory.

You may recall we experienced a similar event in the Summer of 2018, just not on this massive scale. Wildfires raged in British Columbia and Alberta, sending a thick cloud of smoke into the Pacific Northwest.

A Facebook campaign emerged around that time that tried to show the humorous side of the disastrous fires in Canada, while also raising awareness about several ways people could help with disaster relief (RedCross, Animal Shelters, etc). It was simply called the "Let's Blow the Smoke Back to Canada" campaign.

According to the Facebook page

To get rid of this smoke, we have to work together as a community. After much deliberation and mathematical calculation, we have figured that it is absolutely possible for us to blow this smoke away with high-powered fans. This Friday, every resident must place at least 5 box fans on their roof. Turn your fans onto the highest setting, and aim them toward northeastern Canada. Teamwork makes the dream work.

As silly as the effort sounds, people began to post videos of their household fans at full speed while pointing North.

We are officially over the 1 million count in population here in Montana. If we all band together to battle the smoke, we should be able to blow it all back over the border in no time.