Most of that tree mass becomes lumber, which keeps a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere. Once cleared, new trees take their place and suck up more carbon. Lumber is a rare win-win for climate change and the economy.
As opposed to natural modes of tree death like fires or simply rotting, in which all stored carbon is released...
Clear cutting is not aimed at capturing lumber that would have otherwise fallen into the category of natural modes of tree death. We can and should be smarter about forest management but the industry has learned to speak with a forked tongue and to subborn efforts that would interfere with their short-term mindset that prioritizes maximizing extraction rates.
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/tall-and-old-or-dense-and-...
Sure, these trees are technically renewable over decades to centuries but this doesn't matter all that much when we need to rapidly reach net zero in only about 25 years.
> Environmental advocates have long pushed to end logging in primary or old-growth forests, which soak up far more climate-damaging carbon than logged-and-replanted areas.
While the old trees are burned and release more carbon because they are of better quality.