Some climate change experts have an idea to slow global warming that sounds like it could have come straight from a science-fiction movie.
A group of scientists are currently exploring solar geoengineering technology to stop temperatures rising. Put simply, they're looking to "dim the sun."
Janos Pasztor, executive director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that climate change impacts could soon be "catastrophic." That means more extreme ways to cool the climate are now on the table - making it more urgent that the world agrees on ways to manage them.
"Simply not doing either anything or enough ... in itself has huge risks," he said.
One controversial strategy being explored is known as stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI. It involves spraying chemicals into the atmosphere to reflect away some of the sun's warmth, like how volcanic eruptions darken the sky, according to TRF.
SAI could hold down global average temperatures, supporters argue, while deploying the technology would be relatively simple and only cost a few billion dollars a year.
Meantime, critics say SAI would only mask the problem instead of offering a solution. Some experts have even called for SAI research to stop and testing banned, warning that it carries serious and unknown risks.
Solar geoengineering carries other threats as well, including potential shifts in rainfall patterns that could impact global hunger, or uncontrollable temperature rise if the technology's use is suddenly stopped, according to TRF.
The White House recently deployed a cross-agency team to develop a research plan that would guide and set standards for how scientists study and test SAI, according to MIT Technology Review. The team includes members from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Energy.
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