Dr. James Hansen (left), noted climate change scientist best known for his accurate predictions about climate change since the 1980s, as well as his advising Al Gore on “An Inconvenient Truth” and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, discusses the Internet and social media with John Bergdoll. Boston’s Green Living Festival

“As long as fossil fuel remains the cheapest energy option, it will be used,” commented Dr. James Hansen. “Globally, coal usage is increasing. The only solution is to have a rising price of fossil fuel.”

James Hansen and his team at NASA have said that any concentration of carbon in the atmosphere greater than 350 parts per million is not compatible with the planet “on which civilization developed and to which life is adapted.” We are at currently at a concentration of carbon in the atmosphere of 390 parts per million. This means we have to move very, very fast before we overwhelm the planet’s systems.

He went on to say, “Eighty percent of the solution is to phase out coal. It doesn’t make sense to get every drop of fossil fuel since the supply is going to run dry and we’re going to have to get rid of it anyway.”

If we continue creating CO2 emissions with business as usual, we are going to lose the Artic in the next two decades. Sea levels are rising, mountain glaciers are receding, and the ocean is gaining heat … it all means that our planet is out of energy balance.

Compounding the problem is fact that some congressmen who retire use their influence to become coal lobbyists for huge sums of money.

Dr. Hansen commented that there is not enough global understanding to create the public pressure and made reference to how long it took to make significant strides with the racial justice problem in this country. In my personal discussion with Dr Hansen, I mentioned that the Internet and social media is the ‘wild card’ we have to galvanize an awareness to a global audience. A recent example of this is when President Obama used the Internet and social media to mobilize the masses during his campaign. Huge attention was also brought to the Haiti crisis and the Katrina victims.

We are at the crossroads of intergenerational injustice with an obligation and responsibility to future generations by taking the necessary steps to forestall further damage to the environment.

An adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and at Columbia’s Earth Institute, and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. Hansen is frequently called to testify before Congress on climate issues. Dr. Hansen’s background in both space and earth sciences allows a broad perspective on the status and prospects of our home planet.

Connect with me: Twitter @JohnBergdoll