Author Archives | Karl Fabricius
Karl Fabricius - who has written 212 posts on Environmental Graffiti.
Karl was raised in Wales and currently lives in Bristol, though his family tree branches to both sides of the Atlantic. Besides holding an English MA, he’s made a documentary on grassroots boxing, played drums in punk rock bands, and traveled some lush parts of the globe. Back from copywriting in Dubai’s desert, he’s thirsty to get scribbling about things worth scribbling about – especially the environment.
Sao Paulo’s Incredible Storm Drain Graffiti
Where there is concrete, let there be colour; where there is asphalt, let there be kickass graffiti. The world’s metropolises are grey enough places without a hard line stance against good graffiti. Take Sao Paulo, whose sprawling mass is home to almost 20 million people. When street art duo 6EMEIA started painting storm drains in the Barra Funda neighbourhood of Brazil’s largest city, their plan was to transform everyday life in the way only a smile can.
Continue reading...7 Most Massive Single Meteorites on Earth
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Like fugitives on the run from distant solar systems, meteors hurtle through the earth’s atmosphere, lighting up the eyes of observers on the ground. Often these fireballs of metal and rock burn up in a blaze of glory, and many do not survive their impact with the Earth’s surface. Those that do start a more settled life here on Earth as meteorites. Some might even claim to be the new sheriffs in town – they’re that big and resistant to weathering.
Continue reading...Mortal Combat: El Salvador’s Fireball Street Fight
Thursday, November 5, 2009
It looks like a warzone or at least a riot in full swing. Fireballs tear through the streets painting the night air orange as young men, their faces emblazoned with fearsome patterns, prowl the streets waging in pitched battles against one another. The incendiary missiles explode on impact – sometimes in the faces of their targets. Pyromaniacs take note. If you love fire, you’ll be blown away by the Bolas de Fuego festival in El Salvador.
Continue reading...Tiny People Invade Your Home
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
In ‘Plastic Life’, French photographer Vincent Bousserez creates Lilliputian-scaled contemporary art using plastic figures and household objects. Keen provoker of the double-take and the nervous laugh, he offers us a looking glass through which to see ourselves afresh, as the moulded, not-so-model human beings we are. By juxtaposing his protagonists with everyday domestic items, Bousserez brings their stories disconcertingly back home.
Continue reading...Bald Eagle’s Aerial Attack on Unsuspecting Swan
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
This serene, unsuspecting trumpeter swan was captured flying over Lakelse Lake in British Columbia, when suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, a bald eagle launched a fierce and audacious attack on it in mid-flight. The bird of prey landed on its victim, seizing hold of it while trying to pierce its vital areas with its dagger-like hind claws. What follows is an incredible sequence of photos of avian aerial combat at its most tense and gripping.
Continue reading...Italy’s Drowned Village
Monday, November 2, 2009
Legend has it the bell can still be heard in the dead of winter, sounding out its knell despite the fact that it has long since been removed. The bell tower of the 14th century church that projects from Lake Reschen in the far north of Italy is all that is now visible of the once thriving village of Graun. In the middle of the last century, the town was drowned by the artificial lake that lies above it to this day.
Continue reading...Bizarre Bubbles Invade the Ocean Floor
Friday, October 30, 2009
Bunches of grapes grown in a radioactive environment? The genetically modified eggs of some strange unidentified marine species? Or a fungal growth that would call for a hasty trip to the doctor? Nothing of the sort. It's stunningly beautiful bubble coral, and once we saw it we simply had to blog about it. Don your dark glasses; you're in for a feast for the eyes that might leave you dazzled.
Continue reading...Manhattan of the Desert: Yemen’s Ancient Mud Skyscraper City
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Some might assume it to be a mirage. Rising out of the desert in the South Arabian Peninsula, ancient high-rise apartment buildings made of mud meet the eye. Centuries before the modern age of skyscrapers dawned in Chicago and New York, the Middle East had its own skyscraper city – the oldest on earth. This is Shibam in Yemen, a place thought to have existed since the 2nd Century AD.
Continue reading...Welcome to Deception Island
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Deception Island. The name alone conjures intrigue, concealment and trickery. Upon approaching this remote Antarctic outcrop, a desolate and forbidding coastline looms – sheer, snow-capped rocky crags and barren volcanic slopes cloaked in a soup of swirling fog. Occupied sporadically for a century or more, ghost settlements are now all that remain of the island’s earlier human ventures. Several vicious volcanic eruptions have made sure of that.
Continue reading...10 Most Incredible Earth Scars
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
With explosions and massive machines scraping into the earth’s crust like a bad case of scabies, it's small wonder open cast mining has made what many see as an unpleasant impact on the planet’s surface. The face of the globe is beleaguered with giant scars, scoured out in our ongoing bid to the plunder the planet of its natural resources. We’ve selected 7 of the holes most needing a bit of environmental ointment – where rehabilitation of the land could take some time.
Continue reading...
Saturday, November 7, 2009
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