Environmental Graffiti

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28. November 2009

The 1979 Iranian Revolution in Pictures

Twenty years ago Iran's revolution began with a popular democratic movement and ended with the establishment of one of the world's primary Islamic states. Today the oppressiveness of such theocracies and the threat of Islamic Jihadists dominate the international agenda. Environmental Graffiti has decided to take a closer look at an event that lies at the heart of the West's difficulties with Iran.

27. November 2009

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Plastic Toys Reformed Into Grotesque Art

Kris Kuksi is an artist who almost redefines the word intricacy, and does so recycling toys, figurines, mechanical parts and other thrown away objects and discarded detritus. Like a maestro modelist who’s dabbled with too many mild-altering substances, Kuksi has an outlandish attention to detail, and as such is able to create surreal and macabre worlds, the bizarre quality of which is haunting – even hallucinatory.

27. November 2009

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5 Most Colossal Nuclear Explosions Ever Captured On Camera

If ever there was a picture of beauty belying a deeper cruelty, if ever there was an image of our power to cause untold harm – the giant, rising mass of the mushroom cloud is it. Here we present the biggest ever nuclear explosions to tear across on the face of our fair planet and captured on camera, even the smallest of which yielded hundreds of times the combined power of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

26. November 2009

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The Most Terrifying Effect of Global Warming in Pictures

There is little doubt that global warming is having an effect on our planet – in the last century the average temperature has risen around 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 Celsius) – but the greatest single danger, scientists warn, is that global warming will cause a dramatic rise in sea levels, flooding the world's most powerful cities under a catastrophic deluge.

25. November 2009

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How We Duped the Nazi Postal Service into Sending Stamps Bearing Hitler’s Skull

In the skies over the Reich, planes dropped their bombs on a mail train bound for Linz, before a second wave of more insidiously incendiary cargo was released. Mailbags filled with around 3800 propaganda letters – some containing sinister stamps of Hitler wearing a grinning skull – were dropped into the wreckage, ready to be recovered and delivered to the Germans by the postal service. It was the first mission of Operation Cornflakes.

25. November 2009

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Dead Cassette Tapes Reincarnated As Skeletons

Ever wondered what to do with all those cassette tapes gathering dust on the shelf or lying unused in old shoeboxes? Send them Brian Dettmer. Not for the first time, the Atlanta-based artist has broken the mould with a collection of 3D artworks made by breathing new life into discarded cultural detritus. Cassette tape shells make up the bones of life-sized human skeletons and animal skulls – to create some incredible new forms.

24. November 2009

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5 Most Alien Looking Spiders

As if spiders weren’t strange enough creatures with their eight legs and eight eyes, some seem to have even donned a fur coat that would put any grizzly bear to shame. We’re not quite sure the creatures we are about to present are spiders at all as they look like they’ve come from outer space. It doesn’t matter that many of them are not even an inch tall – macro photography makes them look like alien giants. But see for yourself.

24. November 2009

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The Most Beautiful Yet Precariously Placed Monasteries on Earth

For those whom the word means something more than a catch-me-if-I-fall donation to a toll free number, faith is a dizzying business. "The rocks beneath one’s feet are ever liable to crumble into the void, but that’s the test faith demands – and we shall be protected,” the crazies who built the perilously placed monasteries featured here seem to have been saying – unless they simply dug free rock climbing, that most ancient of extreme sports.

23. November 2009

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The Mandarinfish’s Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat

Mandarinfish are the only one of two animal species that show a blue colouration based on light-reflecting cells with blue pigments. Orange, yellow, blue and green are the colours they flash during their elaborate courtship dances. During the day, they are shy creatures most content dashing in and out of their reef, therefore quite hard to capture on camera. Here are a the stunning results of a few photographers whose patience paid off.

23. November 2009

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Who Knew Missile Defense Could Be So Pretty?

Decoy flares are infrared countermeasures used to protect aircraft from being detected by infrared homing missiles, i.e. those that detect heat sources like a jet engine. Like a plane’s guardian angels, the flares create false heat targets that confuse the guidance system of an enemy aircraft’s infrared missiles. Apart from being a simple and effective defense mechanism, they’re also surprisingly beautiful. No wonder they have been nicknamed angel wings.