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May/June 2006 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Feature: Futureville Sidebar: Melbourne Principles In-depth: Exploring sustainable cities Feature: Seasons of the city Feature: Environmental scientist Feature: Spotted owl Feature: Waste generation Sidebar: Household waste disposal The Inside Story Editor’s Notebook Reverberations Explorer À la carte Mosaic

At the same time, McCready, now a senior policy adviser to the Energy Council of Canada, has enormous respect for Keith’s intellect — and his desire to get things done.

“David impressed me as being stronger than any scientist I’vemet in terms of having an eclectic set of interests and being ready to talk about the whole story,” he says. “He’s got a grip on what’s practical and pragmatic. He’s not an ideologue.”

For most of his professional life, Keith has demonstrated a willingness, even an eagerness, to challenge the status quo. After nearly two decades in the United States, including high-profile stints at such prestigious institutions as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, Keith returned to Canada in 2004 and now holds the Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment at the University of Calgary. As such, he is taking his climate-change crusade right into the heart of the Canadian oil patch.

Keith has toiled for years on the issue of carbon-dioxide (CO₂) capture and storage — the idea that carbon emissions produced in fossil-fuel combustion can be separated at source (for example, at coal- or gas-fired electrical generating stations) and safely stored away from the atmosphere in subterranean sites, such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs and deep coal beds. Carbon storage has gone from“this crazy idea a few freaks had,” as Keith puts it, to a mainstream concept on the verge of widespread implementation.

He is currently pushing the envelope even further. Last year, in the only publicly funded experiment of its kind, Keith’s University of Calgary research team built a five-metre tower designed to “scrub” CO₂ directly out of the air and store it underground. If feasible, it means CO₂ capture would not be limited to industrial sites. Instead, these CO₂-sucking devices could be placed anywhere around the world.

The technology is already scientifically proven, butmany critics claimthe process would be outrageously expensive to implement on a widespread basis. Keith is out to prove themwrong.

“I hope thiswill help settle the controversy,” he says, “andmake people realize you can do this at a cost that isn’t totally a joke.”

Despite his focus on carbon capture and storage, Keith doesn’t see it as a panacea for climate change.The task ahead, he notes, is daunting. If serious environmental damage to the planet is to be averted, global CO₂ emissions must be cut in half by 2050 and essentially eliminated entirely by the end of the century. Accomplishing that, says Keith, means entertaining a multitude of potential solutions, including renewable energy and nuclear power, conservation and a host of systemic and regulatory changes. In that context, he adds, CO₂ capture is a “small, if exciting, piece of the puzzle.”

But one thing Keith really does like about carbon storage is that it alters the politics of climate change by encouraging energy companies to “buy in” as part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

“If industry players feel they have no input,” he says, “the natural human tendency is to fight — and to fight dirty, in some cases. But if they see a technology that can effectively reduce emissions, particularly one they can make a buck on, then their attitudes change.”

That, in turn, says Keith, “makes it easier to come to the kind of social deal we need in order to regulate.”