How and Why

Thinking about the 2 million acres that have burned, my greedy capitalist mind started thinking. How much carbon does one tree store? How much carbon dioxide is released when one tree burns? How much carbon dioxide is released by the burned trees on 2 million acres? How many trees does it take to build a permanent home? How many permanent homes could have been built, had those trees been logged and harvested instead of burned? How much carbon would now be stored as wood in those homes (for the homeless), instead of released as smoke and ash into the atmosphere?

Why can’t we build dams in the forests, like beavers do? Why can’t the lakes we build also be good for the environment, like the beavers do? Why do the laws regarding trees vary so much from jurisdiction to neighboring jurisdiction? Why does a bureaucracy 3,000 miles away control the forests we can see from our windows?