BROADCASTS.com

At a recent press conference on the new US budget questions were asked about funding for climate change initiatives. The answer was stark. \u201cWe\u2019re not spending money on that anymore,\u201d reporters were told, they\u2019re a \u201cwaste of your money\u201d. The new administration is sceptical about man-made climate change. Most of the world\u2019s scientists and governments, however, are not. The Paris Agreement committed the world to prevent global temperatures from rising more than two degrees over pre-industrial levels. That target looked close to impossible even before the election of Donald Trump. So \u2013 our question this week \u2013 do we need a \u2018plan B\u2019? Scientists have been developing some very ambitious ideas to re-engineer our climate. They have created materials that could suck carbon dioxide out of the air and a scheme to pump reflective particles into the atmosphere. But \u2013 if \u2018plan A\u2019 fails \u2013 might any of these last-ditch ideas actually work?

(Photo: The smoke stacks at American Electric Power's Mountaineer coal power plant in New Haven, West Virginia. Credit: Getty Images)