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
March 11, 2024
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I didn’t think I’d still be giving versions of “The Talk.” This was not about safe sex but safe driving, and the reluctant audience…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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August 9, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) You may have heard that 2010 is a good time to die. Not so good for you, of course, but good for your…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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July 26, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) There’s a miracle in the making, and it’s as simple as good food that tastes good. “Just food” is a concept that something…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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July 12, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Despite my dual interests in financial planning and environmental issues, I had never thought about how to effect a green exit — until…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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June 26, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Gas economy should be a darling issue for every political party, since it addresses everyone’s hot-button concerns. Fuel-efficient cars save money for private…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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June 14, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Long, long ago — back in the 1970s — Santa Barbara’s oil spill and Rachel Carson’s seminal book Silent Spring inspired legislation including the Clean Air Act (1970) and the Clean Water…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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May 31, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) My 39-year-old sister-in-law died of identity theft in 1995. Her death certificate listed “breast cancer” as the cause, but I believe her illness…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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May 17, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) When a friend and I were talking the other day about the Deepwater Horizon Incident (the Louisiana oil platform blowout), she told me that the…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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May 3, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Talk about think globally, act locally. Someone has invented a tool to value “ecosystem services,” helping decision-makers such as government officials, conservation professionals…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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April 19, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) A couple of weeks ago, Chicago (the band) played at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. When I arrived and began to notice the average age…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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April 5, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) When the city of Santa Barbara decided to dig deeper into trash reduction, it discovered unmined gold at the schools. Schools are the largest aggregators…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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March 22, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Strolling through any store is convincing evidence of the ubiquity of global products, but most of us are understandably confused about U.S. global…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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March 8, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) A wonderful bird is the pelican,His bill will hold more than his belican,He can take in his beakEnough food for a weekBut I’m…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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February 22, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) We are a family of numerophiles. We like number patterns for their own sakes, without regard to numerology or the Fibonacci sequence. When the…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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February 21, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Maria Khoury, a Palestinian Christian from the village of Taybeh in the West Bank, spoke to a group of 35 parishioners at All Saints…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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February 8, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Have you ever heard of George, who played with a dangerous toy and suffered a catastrophe of considerable proportions? I used to recite this…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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January 25, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) You know that the only sure things in life are death and taxes. So why are we so unsure about IRAs, which ultimately concern…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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January 12, 2010
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Perhaps because of the singular artery of Highway 101, we tend to think of Santa Barbara along an east-west, coastline orientation. But the…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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December 28, 2009
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Melinda and Bill Gates, President George W. Bush, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, President Barack Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernenke. It’s an out-of-the-box time when 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.