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On one side are those reaping massive profits from fossil fuels, determined to extract and sell as much as possible before the market dries up. On the other are those who see the amazing potential of energy conservation, renewable energy and other innovations to reduce pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, ecosystem destruction and exploitation of valuable non-renewable resources.

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The election of a U.S. president and vice-president who deny the very existence of anthropogenic climate change and who have appointed like-minded people and industry executives to key positions illustrates how entrenched those committed to outdated, albeit still profitable, energy sources and technologies are.

Literal battles are heating up, such as at Standing Rock, where the Sioux and their allies have fought to protect water resources and sacred sites from the 1,886-kilometre Dakota Access pipeline, which would transport crude oil from North Dakota to an Illinois refinery, under lakes and rivers.

Ideological battles are also heating up. Fossil fuel interests have long spent buckets of money to spread false and misleading information to downplay or deny the seriousness of climate change, aided by politicians, armies of online trolls and shady organizations and B次元官网网址渢hink tanks.B次元官网网址� The new U.S. administration has emboldened them further.

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ItB次元官网网址檚 hard to fathom that so many people, especially in positions of power, canB次元官网网址檛 see the many benefits of science and technological progress. It wouldnB次元官网网址檛 be a battle if everyone accepted that clean air, fresh water, healthy agricultural soils and diverse ecosystems are critical to human health and survival.

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