‘Sacrifice zones’ are areas heavily affected by industrialization. The boom in clean energy could well expand them. In Chile, the energy transition could exacerbate damage in existing zones, as the increased demand for critical metals harms the Indigenous territories of the Atacama Desert (N. C. Zanetta-Colombo et al. Sci. Total Environ. 920, 170954; 2024). Lithium extraction for batteries could devastate valuable ecosystems, such as the Salar de Atacama salt flats (J. S. Gutiérrez et al. Nature 557, 492; 2018).
Competing Interests
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The authors declare no competing interests.