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
September 30, 2024
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist; Read original post on Noozhawk here. In August, LA Times writer Laurel Rosenhall reported on California lawmakers reaching a five-year deal with Google regarding AI (Artificial Intelligence). In exchange for shelving legislation requiring Google to pay news…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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October 19, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) In my last column I described Medicare and its extensions, Medigap and Medicare Advantage, as a complex system that is both important and difficult to navigate. This column…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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October 5, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I’ve been writing about Medicare for years, so I wasn’t particularly affronted when, not long after my 64th birthday, I started receiving advertising circulars about…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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September 21, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I’m home exchanging in the mountains east of Provo, Utah, watching the arrival of autumn. Working on my laptop on an upstairs deck, I’m…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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September 7, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) How are you faring in today’s gyrating stock markets? As you read this, it’s equally likely that we’re experiencing days in a row…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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August 24, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
50 Great Public Land Destinations website offers day trips and more by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Last column I gushed about HR 1957: The Great American Open Spaces Act (GAOA),…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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August 10, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) The economy is still in tatters, the pandemic is still raging, but finally there’s something to celebrate. The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) passed last…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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July 27, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Call me cheap, but I just don’t think we can afford to lose the ACA. Six years have transpired since the 2014 passage…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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July 13, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
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…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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July 13, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist(read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) 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…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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June 20, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) 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…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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June 15, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
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.” I didn’t trash them,…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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June 1, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Last column, I wrote about the co-incident and related global emergencies of pandemics, climate change, and biodiversity loss. A friend asked me to…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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May 18, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) An emergency is typically an acute, awful event. Locally, we’ve reserved the term for wildfires, debris flows, and occasional earthquakes. They take over…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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May 4, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Earth Day’s 50th anniversary passed without much fanfare, if by fanfare you picture bands, booths, and banana smoothies at Alameda Park. COVID-19 stymied…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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April 20, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) It’s not news that American consumer debt was staggering even before the pandemic. Credit card debt alone exceeded $870 billion in 2019, according…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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April 6, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) The news spews discouraging totals of infections, deaths, job loss, and under-provisioned medical staff. While we feel discouraged at best and ill at…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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March 23, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Living above Foothill Road, the beneficiaries of my attempts at vegetable farming are mostly gophers, voles and moles. I carry on because it’s…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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March 9, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) What would it have been like to travel by train from Los Angeles to San Francisco when the line first opened? I just…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.