At 66, one of the nation’s most prominent climate-change scientists says he’s more interested in finding solutions than placing blame for a warming planet.

One key solution, physicist James Hansen said Friday: No more coal-fired power plants like the one Duke Energy plans to expand 50 miles west of Charlotte.

Hansen is director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. He’s also outspoken about the need to stabilize levels in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, which is released when coal, natural gas and oil are burned. Most climate scientists link those greenhouse gases to a warming planet.

Events of the past five years, such as the rapid melting of sea ice, have made clear that the climate is nearing a tipping point of irreversible damage, he said.

“The danger is such now that in 20 years people will look back and say, `Why didn’t (scientists) warn us?’ ” Hansen said in an interview before his talk at Queens University of Charlotte.

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