Epoch Times reports that Bill Gates (as you all know is second in command to Fauci in the “I Am Science” hierarchy) has decided that eliminating trees and burying them is the best practice idea to reduce carbon in the atmosphere.  Yes, you read that right. 

Apparently, the notion is that trees capture carbon, therefore by cutting them down and burying them, you take carbon away from the atmosphere… or something.  At least that’s all I can gather from what limited information is available, and from a link in the article to a study: “Some research does support the theory that burying debris from cut trees can work as a form of carbon capture. One 2019 study showed that storing wood biomass can remove billions of tons of carbon annually.”  I encourage you to read the study if you enjoy technical word salads. I tried unsuccessfully to connect all the dots in the “study” and failed miserably.

The initiative is being proposed by an outfit called Kodama and funded by Bill Gates and others.  Kodama’s website states: “After decades of fire suppression and other factors such as climate change, forests in the western U.S. are overgrown, threatened by disease, and at risk of megafire. To bring these forests back into balance, we must dramatically accelerate forest thinning treatments and utilize excess biomass at scale. The current industry is overburdened and cannot scale to meet today’s needs.”

Let’s peel that onion back just a bit.  “Forests are... overgrown” because of “climate change.” Wait, weren’t we supposed to be recycling paper and cardboard and use electric hand dryers in the bathrooms to save the trees?  Guess that wasn’t such a good idea after all. 

Next up is “…utilize excess biomass at scale” I think that means either burning more trees to generate electrical power or burying them. It is not clear which.

There are references in the article and specifically stated by Kodama that that too many trees can increase the risk of forest fires and “wildfires can emit alarmingly high levels of greenhouse gases (GHG).”  Too bad there is no credible science or statistics to back up the idea that deforestation is the answer in reducing the risk or severity of wildfires.  In fact, in opposition to that theory, Chad Hanson, a research ecologist and co-founder of the John Muir Project, stated to the Epoch Times "Wildfires are overwhelmingly driven by weather, especially hot, dry, windy conditions. Most of the current science is finding that dense forest conditions create a buffer against extreme summer weather," and "Denser forests have more cooling shade due to higher forest canopy cover, and higher tree densities create a windbreak against the gusts that drive flames during a fire." He said tree thinning undermines that buffer.

Anyone who has tried to start a campfire knows this. 

But Bill Gates is the expert on this subject so we should bow at his altar.  Speaking at the New York Times Climate Forward Summit in September, he called the idea of planting trees to mitigate climate change (CO2 emissions) "complete nonsense... I mean, are we the science people, or are we the idiots?"   

Hey Bill; look up photosynthesis. Now who’s the idiot? 

Image: U.S. Forest Service