Research Library

The number of anti-vaccine bills filed in Texas has risen, yet many Texans support vaccine policy. Fellow Kirstin R.W. Matthews and nonresident scholar Rekha Lakshmanan examine the stakes of legislative engagement in public health initiatives and provide a call to action for Texans to embrace public health as an act of freedom.

"With the pressures of climate change and the urgency to incorporate alternative energy resources like wind and solar, the fixation on the purported benefits of energy transition technologies overshadows the glaring reality — an absence of strategy around identifying and quantifying other life cycle externalities, such as waste disposal or environmental impacts," write fellow Rachel Meidl and research assistant Mathilde Saada. Read more on the Baker Institute Blog.

In the push for decarbonization, "turquoise" hydrogen offers a unique, commercially viable technology that reduces CO2 emissions, argue Rachel A. Meidl and Kenneth B. Medlock III.

"This is a moment to prioritise health over short-term political calculations," write fellow Peter Hotez, Rekha Lakshmanan
 and nine other experts in a Lancet commentary. Click here for their call for action against anti-vaccine rhetoric and COVID-19 misinformation, and five short-term recommendations.

Circular processes cannot solve the sustainability problem, but critically implementing circularity with system-level thinking can help to urgently adopt a more resilient, regenerative model for avoiding resource scarcity while fostering economic growth, argues a Forbes piece co-authored by Rachel Meidl.

Circular economy principles are oftentimes used in conjunction or synonymously with the term “sustainability.” However, although there is a relationship between sustainability and circularity, these two concepts are very different. Energy fellow Rachel A. Meidl explains the distinction in a new post for the Baker Institute Blog.

Advanced recycling of plastics can help the U.S. achieve sustainability goals and a climate-neutral, circular economy.

The atmospheric concentration of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) — the most potent greenhouse gas known to humanity and a chemical that is frequently used as an electrical insulator — is growing and thereby contributing to global warming. In a post for the Baker Institute blog, experts from the Center for Energy Studies explain whether we should be worried and what can be done to mitigate the risks.

Although on the surface electric vehicles have lower safety risks than cars with internal combustion engines, the introduction of lithium ion batteries into the equation presents unresearched and unquantified hazards and consequences. This is why continued examination and incident analyses are important, writes energy fellow Rachel A. Meidl for the Baker Institute Blog.