How do people respond to dramatic environmental changes in their own backyards? The photographers featured in the upcoming Blue Earth Book have traveled far and wide to answer this question. The documentary projects range from mining communities in the American south, to the Mixteca region of Mexico, from the Nigerian delta to the Chernobyl community in the Ukraine.

Here, at an illicit refinery in the Niger Delta, a worker sits on a wooden boat filled with crude oil. The surrounding community relies on this river water for bathing, drinking, and fishing.