The Tesla Roadster: Who could argue with its sex appeal? (Tesla photo)

The financial establishment is getting bullish about electric cars. I just talked to a Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst who told me that EVs will need "sizzle," or maybe the right phrase is sex appeal, to triumph in the marketplace.

"Cost is not the only factor driving the purchasing decision," says analyst Steven Milunovich. "EVs need to appeal to consumers on a psychological level, such as prestige and driving enjoyment." I totally agree. The good thing is that many EVs already have sizzle to burn. Or is sizzle already burning?

The car magazines are stuck in the past with high-performance dinosaurs, but most of the cars that attract buzz in the financial media today are green. The Fisker Karma, for instance, is a visual outrage--it makes Megan Fox look like a nun. And it's bristling with cool eco-features, including interior wood sourced from river bottoms and a rooftop solar panel to run the heating and cooling systems. And it's not surprising that Fisker is working on some kind of proprietary noise--a Formula One car crossed with a spaceship--so that pedestrians will know it's there when in battery mode.

The Tesla Roadster is, of course, off the charts in sizzle factor, and the forthcoming Model S is the Maserati of electric sedans. General Motors would love to pay for the positive publicity Tesla gets for free.

Another reason Wall Street likes EVs is that it can make money on them. When the battery company A123 (a supplier to Chrysler) went public, its stock--one of the few "pure plays" an investor could buy (most battery makers are either not public or part of large conglomerates) doubled in price on the first day.

Given that Christmas has become a $400 billion annual spending spree here in the U.S., sometimes I think Scrooge had a point during his "bah humbug" period. Certainly a little spending moderation can't hurt this holiday season, and it might even put us back in touch with the true spirit and ideals of the season. Here's how to enjoy the holidays and avoid a financial hangover come New Years Day:

* Agree on a sensible gift exchange plan with family and friends: Don't be shy about broaching the subject of having a scaled-back gift exchange with family and friends. Many times, others will thank you for having the courage to bring it up. Consider setting a spending limit -- and sticking to it -- and adopting a "secret Santa" plan, whereby each person in the family draws a name and buys a gift only for that person rather than for everyone in the family. Or consider an alternative gift exchange plan, like only giving homemade items, re-gifted items, gifts of your time, or just exchanging cards instead of gifts. Remember, it's the thought that counts.

* Make entertaining more about special people and activities than about expensive food and drink: Celebrating with family and friends need not leave your bank account as empty as Santa's workshop after the holidays are over. Put the focus of holiday entertaining back where it belongs -- on enjoying good times with good people. Make meal events a potluck or progressive dinner, so that everyone can share their favorite recipes (and some of the cost). Host a brunch rather than a dinner party; brunch-foods like egg dishes, breads, and salads tend to cost less than dinner fare. And deemphasize food and drink by planning fun group activities, like an old fashioned caroling party or playing games instead of having a traditional - and costly - cocktail party.

* Decorate with creativity, not credit cards: It's easy to overspend when it comes to decking the halls, but simple elegance usually trumps glitzy glamour when decorating for the holidays. Take an inventory of decorations you have on hand before you shop for more; it's easy to forget about items you have in storage or bought last year at after-Christmas sales. Incorporate inexpensive greenery and other natural materials as much as possible, including those you might collect from your own yard or swap with neighbors. If you buy a real Christmas tree, buy the largest one you can find for the price and cut off unneeded lower branches to use in wreaths and garland. Or consider buying a truly "live" tree -- one with the root ball still intact -- and plant it in your yard after the holidays; according to the U.S. Department of Energy, as few as three strategically planted trees in your yard can significantly reduce household heating and cooling expenses.

I'm surrounded by newly pregnant people. Like too-early-to-tell-anyone early. But I'm the happy keeper of their wondrous secrets. Don't ask for hints on who I'm talking about. I won't tell.

It's funny how short that newly pregnant moment is, because when you're in it, it feels so long. And it's amusing how no one would ever guess because it's so not apparent bump-wise even if inside your own head it's the LOUDEST thing that has ever happened, and ever will again. Well, maybe until your own kid(s) tells you they're pregnant.

One pregnancy I'm spending a lot of time thinking about is a third. The first two times, the mom was severely nauseated. She threw up for months on end. And she's expecting to be so again. But until that nausea comes on, she's cramming herself full of all sorts of great and crucial food and sleeping when her kids will let her. These are weeks to take care of yourself as much as you possibly can. While we were on the phone strategizing about how best to get the nutrients in before she started hurling them up, I went back to my personal notes plus my lists published in The Complete Organic Pregnancy.

The smell of cooking food is particularly awful to the nauseated (mildly or very) pregnant person. Roasted meat scent in particular killed me when I was pregnant so I remember doing all sorts of things to get protein sans smell - protein rich grains like amaranth went down ok, so did beans (sometimes). Avocado worked. Eggs also smelled when scrambled or fried but boiled eggs worked (no smell cooking but sometimes unbearable when I cracked open the shell post boil). I remember having people cook me meat at their houses so I wouldn't have to smell the cooking. My friend has family that lives nearby. I suggested she have her husband cook their meat (they belong to a great pastured meat collective, like a CSA for humanely and ecologically raised animals) over at their houses, and to bring it back into their apartment after it cools off and the scent is less intense. Sounds crazy but when you only have a short period of time to get animal protein and nutrients in before months of barfing, you do what you have to do. If eating seafood, make sure to eat fish and shellfish with the lowest contaminants (PCBs, mercury) and the highest omega-3s and other crucial nutrients found in fish.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is only a month away, and soon all the world -- particularly the embattled developing world and low-lying countries -- will be focused on the specter of global warming. Massive challenges remain when it comes to building consensus on action, and there is a great deal of work to be done.

Yet in order to build a way toward a cleaner future we also need a good handle on the present. One place to start is with this handy new chart at The New Ecologist, mapping out the world's biggest polluters based on carbon dioxide emissions.

Note how coal-heavy China surpassed the U.S. in total emissions, yet lags far behind in per capita releases. Personally I was surprised to see Saudi Arabia and Iran as such big emitters, and it baffles me why Australia has higher per capita emissions than the U.S. or Canada, which are so much colder (a friend of mine who lived Down Under said she rarely even saw furnaces in homes, at least as far north as Sydney and beyond).

It's good to get a sense of the relative emissions we have now, and to look at which economies are booming and are likely to emit more carbon in the coming years. Still, it's frustrating that many Americans have been so resistant to any attempts to reduce emissions, when it's clear that we are responsible for a disproportionate part of the problem. I always thought it was a silly argument to complain that the U.S. shouldn't cut back if developing countries didn't automatically promise to do so. It made me think of the rich man who says he won't give a dollar to charity until every poor man on his block does so first. Had we taken an early lead, businesses would recognize the competitive advantage of doing the right thing (and reducing their exposure to future risk), technologies would be further developed, and we would have served as a good example to the rest of the world, instead of coming across like a greedy braggart (even if we were only acting in the name of preserving jobs, it didn't come across that way to many of our global citizens).

Maybe Copenhagen offers a chance to set things in a more sustainable direction.

See the article and graphics at The New Ecologist.