Ed Hancox

Bio

Currently working in the risk management sector, focusing on energy-related issues. In my spare time I write about issues in international affairs on several sites, including The Mantle (mantlethought.org) and my blog on international affairs, A World View (edsworld365.blogspot.com/)
Just how bad is the air getting in Beijing? Readings on the Air Quality Index scale peaked at over 700 one day last month; to put that in context, the version of the AQI scale used in the United States doesn't even go above 500. Sales of indoor air…
Americans have long held a special fascination with Great Britain's royalty and class-structured society, and the latest example of this fetish is the huge ratings racked up by British import, Downton Abbey. The show, which focuses on the interplay…
Surprise! The United States is actually doing far better in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions than you may have realized.  That is the takeaway from a report issued to little fanfare late last week. The Sustainable Energy Factbook report…
When it first launched as an animated featurette on the now long-forgotten Tracy Ullman Show, The Simpsons was subversive. Here was an unabashedly dysfunctional family; a counterpoint to the quirky-but-perfect nuclear families that were a staple of…
It is fair to say that with multiple 24-hour cable news channels, social media sites like Twitter and smart phone apps that keep us in constant contact with the internet, Americans are voracious consumers of information. You would assume that,…
The names Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Maria Alyokhina may not seem familiar, though you have probably heard of their post-feminist punk protest band, Pussy Riot.  The three women were arrested following a guerrilla…
This week marks the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. Along with round after round of speeches by the world's diplomats, there will be debates on the functioning of the United Nations itself. One of the longest-running of those…
In breaking news on Wednesday morning, the U.S. learned that one of the Americans killed in Tuesday's attack on the United States consular office in Benghazi, Libya was none other than U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Stevens was apparently…
On Thursday, the Romney/Ryan campaign released “Mitt Romney’s Plan for a Stronger Middle Class: Energy Independence,” a comprehensive plan (as opposed to President Obama's “hodgepodge” approach to energy) that they claim will make America energy…
No modern first-world nation can function without stable and secure supplies of energy; therefore you would assume that energy policy would be a key issue in any electoral campaign. But is it? In this three-part series, I will take a look at what…
In a stunning announcement today, imagineers from Disney World in Orlando, FL have confirmed that presidential candidate Mitt Romney is in fact one of the theme parks' animatronic creations. Disney's animatronics are the lifelike creations that have…
Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin was in London to take in one of his favorite events, judo, at the London Olympics. But the cheerful visit to the Games masked some serious problems for Putin at home; no, I'm not referring here to the…
A trial is underway in Russia that will likely redefine the limits of speech and expression in that country. Five months after their arrest, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina – members of the feminist Russian punk…
Did a Canadian business deal just derail hopes that the United States could become energy self-sufficient? Last week, China's state-run oil conglomerate China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has put in a bid to buy Canadian firm Nexen,…
A new report out of Great Britain is sure to add more fuel to the hydrofracking debate. The report by the United Kingdom's Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering concludes that hydrofracking of Great Britain's domestic natural gas reserves…
Rising gasoline prices seem to be as much of a summer tradition in the United States as baseball games and fireworks, but this year is different: gas prices have actually been falling, and projections are that we will likely get through the summer…
There is likely no more controversial topic in energy today than the technique of hydraulic fracturing, a.k.a. “hydrofracking.” Supporters point out that hydrofracking has provided the United States with an overabundance of cheap fossil fuel and…
While American politicians often make it seem like the U.S. is in the midst of an energy crisis, a different picture is being offered by energy industry executives: one where the U.S. finally becomes energy self-sufficient as the world enters into a…
When New Jersey's Chris Christie abruptly pulled his state out of a regional greenhouse gas reduction agreement, his supporters hailed it as another example of bold leadership by the pugnacious governor. Unfortunately, a new study shows just how…
Newt Gingrich has rebounded from his embarrassing presidential campaign to take to the op-ed pages to slam President Barack Obama's energy policy. With domestic oil production rising and natural gas prices falling to levels not seen in a decade,…