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 16, 2024
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist; Read original post on Noozhawk here. How did it take me six years to discover Farm Day? The only way our time in the country could have been more fun would…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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February 17, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist(read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) What if I told you that your positive care for the environment can also help your pocketbook, your psyche and your longevity? Some might…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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February 4, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist(read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Travel insurance is a bit of an oxymoron, in that travel has (for me) all sorts of positive associations, but insurance isn’t a fun…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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February 3, 2020
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist(read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I detest the shallow appellation “sleepy Santa Barbara” for our vibrant and involved community. Yet having just returned from the better part of a…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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December 16, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) A decade ago, mega-investor Warren Buffett, founder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, famously quipped that he paid a lower percentage of his income in tax…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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December 2, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I would have loved to be a scientist, but I feared I wouldn’t be able to find the sweet spot in how to…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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November 18, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I regret there will never be a dearth of material on scams. Recent news featured a real estate scam that robbed a single…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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November 4, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Divorce is difficult in so many ways. Arguably one of the most difficult in a maelstrom of thorny decisions is how to split…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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October 21, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Opioids weren’t always reviled. The powerful class of painkillers was first discovered in 1804, when German pharmacist Friedrich Serturner’s painstaking research isolated morphine…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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October 7, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I am so bummed. I’ve prided myself in how little we toss into the trash compared to our recycling bin, following the rules…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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September 23, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) My niece texted me first about the Conception tragedy. She knows I’m often on the islands and Santa Barbara Channel boats as a volunteer naturalist. My heart…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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September 9, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I vividly recall William Nordhaus’s articles from my economics grad school days. Beginning in the 1970s, he argued for transitioning from a “cowboy economy”…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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August 26, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Santa Barbara’s wealth can be measured in natural beauty and also in the 400-1,000 nonprofit organizations to whom it is home. Even the…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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August 12, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Apparently, it all began when our home was burglarized in 2017. The burglars’ take was pretty dismal: no cash, no drugs, no jewels.…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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July 29, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) One of my husband’s all-time favorite songs is the 1969 Hollies hit “He aAin’t Heavy: He’s my Brother.” I think of it occasionally…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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July 15, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) Socially responsible investing (SRI) has been around since before 1980. SRI has broadened in the last decade or so and taken on a…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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June 17, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) As my cohort enters the Medicare system, misconceptions about senior public health insurance spread through social media. At a gathering of a few friends the…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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June 3, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) The stock market is sort of like a hospital. To the lay person, they are both arcane institutions full of professionals who seem…Read the restReading Time: 3 MIN
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May 20, 2019
By Karen Telleen-Lawton
by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here) I was at the grocery check-out line, around 9:30 in the morning. The checker inquired as to how my day was going so…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.