Please join us for a slideshow and panel discussion with J Henry Fair and book contributors, Jack Hitt, Roger D. Hodge, and Tensie Whelan. The Day After Tomorrow: Images of Our Earth in Crisis—the brand new title from powerHouse Books—takes readers on a journey to bear witness to the environmental destruction that is currently plaguing our habitat; from a forested mountain in West Virginia blasted out of existence by mountaintop removal mining, to a region in Florida left in radioactive ruin by the phosphate mining industry, J Henry Fair presents hard evidence that our unchecked consumerism is leading the way in the destruction of the ecosystems that sustain us. The primarily aerial images are mesmerizing vistas of pools of agitated paper mill waste, blood-red bauxite impoundments, and the remains of hollowed-out mountains. These environmental abstractions lure the viewer with unique asymmetrical shapes and striking colors; however, fascination quickly turns to horror, as the viewer realizes what lurks beneath the surface of each image.

Fair is a consummate environmentalist, who, after years as a corporate and portrait photographer, turned his lens on the industries of daily life—oil, fertilizer, coal, and factory farming, to name a few—eager to uncover the secrets that he knew were well hidden there. The recent BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is only the most glaring of the continuous impacts on our planet that are hastening our mortality and compromising our chances for long-term survival as a species. Above all, The Day After Tomorrow is a call to arms. Our ecosystem dies a little bit every second, and this trend will continue unless we take responsibility. Fair's images reveal the apocalyptic effects of our consumer culture's insatiable appetite for natural resources on the world we inhabit. Quickly revealed is the folly of an economy that, for toilet paper, wipes away forests, pollutes the air and water, and drains water supplies. These stunning and tragically beautiful images, in conjunction with a collection of essays by some of the world's leading writers and scientists, provide indisputable evidence that the way we eat, commute, and manufacture is collectively killing us, and we must change the way we live if we expect our children to prosper.

About the participants:

J Henry Fair's work is regularly exhibited in international museums and galleries, including Mass MoCA, Jerusalem's Museum on the Seam, Gerald Peters Gallery in New York, and Eduard Planting Fine Art in Amsterdam. His environmental photography has been featured in most major press outlets, including The New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, GQ, New York Magazine, and ARTnews, as well as in segments on NBC's The Today Show, NPR's Marketplace, and FOX Business News. Fair's work is represented in NYC and Santa Fe exclusively by Gerald Peters Gallery.

Jack Hitt is an American author. He is a contributing editor to The New York Times Magazine, Harper's Magazine, and This American Life. He also frequently appears in places like Rolling Stone, Wired, and Outside magazine. In 1990, he received the Livingston Award for National Coverage. More recently, Hitt's piece on the anthropology of white Indians was selected for "Best American Science Writing," and his piece about dying languages appeared in "Best American Travel Writing." Another piece on the existential life of a superfund site was included in Ira Glass' The New Kings of Nonfiction in 2007. He is currently working on a one-man show titled, "Making Up The Truth."

Roger D. Hodge is the author of The Mendacity of Hope: Barack Obama and the Betrayal of American Liberalism. Hodge was the editor in chief of Harper's Magazine from 2006 to 2010. He joined the staff of Harper's in 1996, created the magazine's "Findings" column, as well as the online "Weekly Review," and was a National Magazine Award finalist for Reviews and Criticism in 2006. He is currently writing about the Texas-Mexico border. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and their two sons.

Tensie Whelan has held a wide variety of jobs in her career—reporter, editor, consultant, nonprofit executive—with a common theme: passionate activism on behalf of the environment. Whelan, who earned an M.A. from American University's School of International Service and a B.A. from New York University, has been involved with the Rainforest Alliance since 1990, first as a board member and later as a consultant, becoming executive director in 2000 and president in 2007.