If you do not burn them, the plants will die and get composted into soil. Soil itself will decompose and release that carbon back into the atmosphere. In temper

If you do not burn them, the plants will die and get composted into soil. Soil itself will decompose and release that carbon back into the atmosphere. In temperate climate, this happens in a decade or less. The cycle keeps running with or without humans doing the emissions part. So lets focus on the extra carbon that we dug out and inserted into the cycle.