Marin Science Seminar Presentation:  "Engineering Solutions to Ecological Collapse: The Case of International Wetland in Mar Menor, Spain"                October 10th,  2018

The Mar Menor is a huge, shallow lagoon on the margin of the Mediterranean Sea.  It is a wetland recognized by the international Ramsar Convention.  A number of man-caused impacts has resulted in the recent collapse of the wetland ecosystems, with substantial consequences to biological, political, economic and environmental consequences. The talk will set the stage and introduce engineering solutions and actions that can be taken to mitigate the damage and begin the process of restoring the wetland. 

Dr. Charlton is founder and executive in several international clean technology companies that use innovative engineered technologies to reduce solid waste, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, generate clean energy, and clean up contaminated water. In these businesses, Dr. Charlton works with environmental engineers and scientists to design, develop, test and launch new products that clean the environment and pursue sustainable use of water and other natural resources. Current projects involve destroying solid organic waste using low plasma energy (US-Japan), removing nitrates from power plant emissions using algae (US-Spain), cleaning up wastewater at dairies using microbes (Cal Poly Engineering), generating new drinking supply using biotechnology (California), and cleaning up mining waste using biochemistry (USA).

Dr. Charlton's has degrees in Geological Sciences from Dartmouth (AB), the Mackay School of Mines, Nevada (MS), and the University of California. His core competencies are geohydrology, environmental engineering, biochemistry, economics, risk management, and business management. He is also a 4H Geology Project Leader in San Rafael.

Previous presentation: "Paleoclimate: Patterns of Warming and Cooling over 550 Million Years" (November 4, 2015) Get the flyer here.

First presentation: "Pain for Cows and Pumpkins: Drought Impacts on Central Valley Agricultural Water Supply" (October 22, 2014) Get the flyer here.

This talk will compare operations and economics of Central Valley businesses with and without ample water. We will look at how water allocation policies and public projects affect water availability, and the economic consequences (cost and benefit) of such policies and projects. For example, what is the economic and non-economic cost and benefit of building a new dam, vs. electing not to do so?