TONIGHT/Thursday May 14, 7pm 2015 Booksigning Paul Relis
Out of the Wasteland: Stories From the Environmental Frontier.
Chaucer's Books Loreto Plaza Shopping Center, 3321 State St, Santa
Barbara, CA 93105
Come and welcome Paul Relis, as he signs his book, Out of the Wasteland.
http://www.paulrelis.com founding Executive Director of the Community
Environmental Council Paul Relis takes us on a journey of the
environmental frontier, from the heady days of the birth of
environmentalism in Santa Barbara, into the intricate, obfuscated but all
important world of government and policy, to important new environmental
technologies that can, indeed, free us from this age of oil.
Paul Relis was the founding Executive Director of one of the first
regional environmental organizations in California at the young age of
23. Together with colleagues, he built the Community Environmental
Council (CEC), which played a pivotal role in defining the future of
Santa Barbara and the California South Coast. He has served on the
California Integrated Waste Management Board, and worked in the private
sector, focusing on waste- derived bioenergy. Through this work he has
traveled the world in search of technologies that could end the nation's
dependence on landfill and produce carbon-neutral renewable
fuels.
Out of the Wasteland: Stories From the Environmental Frontier. This book
encompasses my 44-year journey where I began as an activist in the wake
of the infamous Santa Barbara Oil Spill in 1969, went on to found the
non-profit Community Environmental Council of Santa Barbara that
continues to this day, then to oversee California's solid waste and
recycling laws as an executive in the California Environmental Protection
Agency, and finally as an executive in a private waste/recycling company
developing anaerobic digestion facilities to convert source-separated
municipal organic waste to zero carbon renewable fuels. The books traces
the roots of modern sustainability and provides an international view,
based on work abroad, of our prospects for dealing with climate
change.
Paul Relis was raised in Long Beach, California. While studying at the
University of California, Santa Barbara, a massive oil spill erupted off
the coast of Santa Barbara on January 28, 1969, that devastated the
coastline, killed much aquatic life, and severely damaged the local
economy. The oil spill was a transformative event in the history of the
U.S that influenced the establishment of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), Earth Day and other landmark environmental
programs.
The oil spill was a life changing event for Paul. He became the first
executive director of a newly formed nonprofit, the Community
Environmental Council CEC) at age 23. The CEC played a critical role in
staving off several proposed developments that would have changed Santa
Barbara forever. And, under his leadership, the CEC built visionary
projects including recycling facilities, urban gardens and an urban farm,
green buildings and other programs that, decades ago, presaged the core
elements of sustainability today.
After twenty years of locally based work Paul took an executive position
with the California Environmental Protection Agency where he helped lead
the state of California’s nation leading recycling programs that have
forged a multi-billion recycling industry and institutionalized recycling
that touches most of California’s 38 million people.
After his government service Paul became an executive in a private
company where he led efforts to deploy technology to convert municipal
organic waste to renewable natural gas, a zero carbon fuel suitable for
running heavy duty trucks and buses. Today the company is building one of
the largest plants in North America to provide fuel for up to 400 heavy
duty vehicles. This project will serve as a template for an emerging
bioenergy industry that will reduce dependence on greenhouse gas
producing fossil fuels and greatly reduce our reliance on methane
generating landfills.
From 1996-2013 Paul taught in the Environmental Studies Department of
the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a board member
emeritus of the Community Environmental Council and sits on the boards of
the American Biogas Council and the Bioenergy Association of
California.
Paul and his wife live in Santa Barbara, California and Taos, New Mexico.
They have three children.
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.org
http://www.sbpermaculture.org
P
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