[Southern California Permaculture] Thursday May 14, 7pm 2015 Booksigning Paul Relis Out of the Wasteland: Stories From the Environmental Frontier Chaucer's Books Santa Barbara

Sat May 9 17:52:50 PDT 2015

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://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.paulrelis.com%2F&h=jAQGfMuwX&enc=AZN0N1yiCPAODwU5IpNN0CDhPv6gxpMF4tI2anfZo56tMSH-Y7ARjSXwTpFPlCaFtyDOQKMb7rm76HoLW9FetweMNB40WO0T4sHwub8kNZ6czgr_NSpI_2FfjoIzm3_AVG2ovsZ3JNkq-kEly3Imt-16a7m8UYcndtHP7EZBzAT4mPw9W_aIyvYN2DoveoxE-Eo&s=1>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.

[]

Santa Babara Permaculture Network Logo

(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie at sbpermaculture.org
http://www.sbpermaculture.org

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

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