Michael Forster Rothbart, Samuel James and Christoph Gielen have recently been accepted by Blue Earth for this year's round of sponsorships.

Photojournalist Michael Forster Rothbart submitted his "After Fukushima" project, a series that explores the human impacts of environmental change in Chernobyl.

Samuel James entered his "Niger Delta" project, which records the ongoing struggle for power, land and oil in Nigeria's Niger Delta.

Finally, Christoph Gielen was selected for his project, "Incarcerated Populations: American Prison Perspectives," a documentation of solitary confinement.

Blue Earth sponsors photographic projects whose goal is to educate the public about endangered cultures, threatened environments, or current topics of pressing social concern.