Exploring the Writing of
Karen Telleen-Lawton
Exploring the Writing of
Karen Telleen-Lawton
Karen Telleen-Lawton writes to understand the environment around her. Her aspiration is to be persuasive, stimulating, entertaining, and sometimes provocative. Nature is her most influential teacher.
Published Most Recently
April 8, 2024
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
I lost my Covirginity last month. After four years of caution and a scant few months after my eighth or ninth Covid booster, I partied while my husband was away. I let down my vigilance, accepting a…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
Canyon Voices - Writings from Rattlesnake Canyon
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED ARTICLES BOOK: CANYON VOICES THE VOICE
COMMUNITY•ECONOMICS•ENVIRONMENT
Plastic Free July
JULY 13, 2020 BY KAREN TELLEEN-LAWTON NO COMMENTS
By Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist
The ubiquity of plastics made its greatest impression on me five years ago on a visit to Easter Island. Twenty-one hundred miles west of mainland Chile, it is one of the most remote inhabited places on earth.… Read the rest
READING TIME: 3 MIN
COMMUNITY•HEALTH & FITNESS•JUSTICE
The Library
JUNE 29, 2020, BY KAREN TELLEEN-LAWTON NO COMMENTS
By Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist Published: June 29, 2020 4:00 p.m.
The public library was my first love outside the family. My relationship mirrored what Susan Orlean describes in “The Library Book”: “I loved wandering around the bookshelves, scanning the spines until something happened to catch my eye.… Read the rest
READING TIME: 3 MIN
BIODIVERSITY•CLIMATE
EMERGENCY•ECONOMICS•ENVIRONMENT•JUSTICE•UNCATEGORIZED
Triple Emergencies II
JUNE 1, 2020 BY KAREN TELLEEN-LAWTON NO COMMENTS
By Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist June 1, 2020
In the last column, I wrote about the co-incident and related global emergencies of pandemics, climate change, and biodiversity loss. A friend asked me to help her understand the relationship. I struggled a bit to provide a clear explanation.… Read the rest
COMMUNITY•ECONOMICS
•JUSTICE•UNCATEGORIZED
Black Lives Matter
JUNE 29, 2020, BY KAREN TELLEEN-LAWTON NO COMMENTS
By Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist June 15, 2020
Last week, my email teemed with what I feared were mere platitudes about Black Lives Matter from
organizations with which I’m involved. Everyone is “sorry,” no one “has been doing enough.”… Read the rest
READING TIME: 4 MIN
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
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January 16, 2012
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) It’s not news that Santa Barbarans are uber-involved in environmental issues given our birthright as home to the environmental movement. The legacy of…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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January 5, 2012
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Last June, I argued in this space (“Is Sustainable Social Security an Oxymoron?”) that Social Security is alive and well for baby boomers. The trust…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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December 19, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) The Holy Land has been an object of pilgrimage for the Abrahamic faiths — Jews, Muslims and Christians — for more than 2,000 years. Christian…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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December 2, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) You can be forgiven if you haven’t heard of seabirds called murres. California common murres (Uria aalge californica) disappeared from the Channel Islands and Southern…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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November 6, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) A few years back I brought some teens from Noah’s Anchorage to hike Rattlesnake Trail. The kids were native Santa Barbarans from troubled homes; most…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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October 31, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Only a select few could attend the first-ever invasive plant removal project on San Clemente Island. The list of interested volunteers for Channel Islands Restoration was…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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October 18, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I watched a CNN report recently chronicling a low-level manager whose anxiety was palpable. She barely was able to support herself and her two children.…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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October 3, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Want an antidote to the Bad News Budget squabbles we’ve heard endlessly from Congress? The AARP’s online “Can You Close the Budget Deficit?” exercise is a terrifically satisfying…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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September 19, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Among the Channel Islands Naturalist Corps volunteers, some vie for and some shun serving on Santa Cruz Island during “Chumash Days.” The weekend after Labor Day is not…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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September 7, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) What if you care not only about a good return on your investment (a gnarly proposition lately!) but also in being a values-oriented…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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August 22, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) The first time the term “conflict of interest” became meaningful for me was in the mid-1980s, when my husband and I were in…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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August 10, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) It’s a rare pleasure to hear creek water in August. Rattlesnake Creek and many others are still flowing, attracting hordes of hikers. Driving…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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July 25, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) As we hit the three-year mark since the financial debacle, baby boomers have to ask ourselves how our finances are holding up. According…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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July 22, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Summer may mean June gloom, but it also heralds bountiful harvests of the best fruits and veggies. The farmers markets, great in any…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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July 13, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Murder and mayhem. T.C. Boyle’s latest book, When the Killing’s Done, is a gripping novel set on the Channel Islands. But gull-hatching time on Anacapa Island has enough intrigue…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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June 10, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) For years baby boomers were warned not to count on Social Security. The system would go bankrupt before we saw any retirement benefit return…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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May 30, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I just returned from my fourth trip to Israel and Palestine, in possession of the triple crown of autographs for Sandy Tolan’s The Lemon Tree.…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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May 12, 2011
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I’m a creek lover. It might be because I live in Rattlesnake Canyon, where the resonance of the winter-swollen creek echoing off the…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
Canyon Voices - Writings from Rattlesnake Canyon
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED ARTICLES BOOK: CANYON VOICES THE VOICE
COMMUNITY•ECONOMICS•ENVIRONMENT
Plastic Free July
JULY 13, 2020 BY KAREN TELLEEN-LAWTON NO COMMENTS
By Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist
The ubiquity of plastics made its greatest impression on me five years ago on a visit to Easter Island. Twenty-one hundred miles west of mainland Chile, it is one of the most remote inhabited places on earth.… Read the rest
READING TIME: 3 MIN
COMMUNITY•HEALTH & FITNESS•JUSTICE
The Library
JUNE 29, 2020, BY KAREN TELLEEN-LAWTON NO COMMENTS
By Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist Published: June 29, 2020 4:00 p.m.
The public library was my first love outside the family. My relationship mirrored what Susan Orlean describes in “The Library Book”: “I loved wandering around the bookshelves, scanning the spines until something happened to catch my eye.… Read the rest
READING TIME: 3 MIN
BIODIVERSITY•CLIMATE
EMERGENCY•ECONOMICS•ENVIRONMENT•JUSTICE•UNCATEGORIZED
Triple Emergencies II
JUNE 1, 2020 BY KAREN TELLEEN-LAWTON NO COMMENTS
By Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist June 1, 2020
In the last column, I wrote about the co-incident and related global emergencies of pandemics, climate change, and biodiversity loss. A friend asked me to help her understand the relationship. I struggled a bit to provide a clear explanation.… Read the rest
COMMUNITY•ECONOMICS
•JUSTICE•UNCATEGORIZED
Black Lives Matter
JUNE 29, 2020, BY KAREN TELLEEN-LAWTON NO COMMENTS
By Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist June 15, 2020
Last week, my email teemed with what I feared were mere platitudes about Black Lives Matter from
organizations with which I’m involved. Everyone is “sorry,” no one “has been doing enough.”… Read the rest
READING TIME: 4 MIN
Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist
ktl@canyonvoices.com
Karen Telleen-Lawton is an eco-writer sharing information and insights about economics and ecology, finances, and the environment. Having recently retired from financial planning and advising, she spends more time exploring the outdoors — and reading and writing about it. The opinions expressed are her own.
A variety of experiences over many (!) decades have influenced her views. Telleen-Lawton holds an undergraduate engineering degree from Stanford University as well as graduate degrees and certificates in environmental policy, economics, business administration and financial planning.
Until her retirement in 2022, Telleen-Lawton was the principal of Decisive Path Fee-only Financial Advisory. She writes regular articles on environmental, economic, and financial planning issues in local, regional, and national publications such as Santa Barbara’s Noozhawk, Stanford Magazine, and a national senior writing syndicate. Her book, Canyon Voices – the Nature of Rattlesnake Canyon, was published by Mission Creek Publishing in 2007. Inspirational writer for her work include John McPhee, Anne, Terry, etc . . . [I’ll look on by bookshelf]
Telleen-Lawton’s volunteer activities include various board and committee functions at All Saints-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, Channel Islands Nationalist Corps, and PSC Partners Seeking a Cure. She was a proud saxophonist with Prime Time Band for seven years before passing her horn to her granddaughter. Her most important influence and best friend for the past 47 years is her husband David.