“Professor James Lovelock, a geo-scientist and author of the Gaia hypothesis, in which the Earth is a quasi-living organism, is one of those who is less optimistic. He believes that a plan B is urgently needed. ‘I never thought that the Kyoto agreement would lead to any useful cut back in greenhouse gas emissions so I am neither more nor less optimistic now about prospect of curbing CO2 compared to 10 years ago. I am, however, less optimistic now about the ability of the Earth’s climate system to cope with expected increases in atmospheric carbon levels compared with 10 years ago,’ he told The Independent. ‘I strongly agree that we now need a ‘plan B’ where a geoengineering strategy is drawn up in parallel with other measures to curb CO2 emissions.'”