Willy De Backer BE
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art4theark.bsky.social
Willy De Backer BE
@art4theark.bsky.social
630 followers 1.1K following 490 posts
Retired journalist exploring interconnected crises reshaping our world. Digging into social-ecological security, planetary health, & justice within the web of life. Deep-time optimist envisioning posthuman futures beyond civilisation's current trajectory.
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art4theark.bsky.social
Drones boven België? Waarom stelt niemand de vraag: 'cui bono'? Wie profiteert?
Lees mijn analyse -
www.linkedin.com/posts/willy-...
#investigativejournalism #defensecontracts #belgium #nato #procurement #francken | Willy De Backer
Drones over Belgium: Cui Bono? Belgium is accelerating counter-drone spending after incidents forced airport closures and overflights of Kleine-Brogel Air Base (nuclear weapons storage). Defense Mini...
www.linkedin.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:41 PM
art4theark.bsky.social
What #COP30 gets wrong about adaptation and #resilience:
"The rainforest already knows what COP30 forgets: resilience is not toughness but connection. Planetary intelligence is the wisdom of systems that listen, adapt, and re-weave life together."
www.linkedin.com/pulse/resili...
Resilience as planetary intelligence: what COP30 misses about adaptation
COP30 is starting in Belém, Brazil. It is called "the adaptation COP.
www.linkedin.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:51 AM
art4theark.bsky.social
Decades of #greenpolitics have made a significant impact, but have fallen short of 'solving' our social-ecological emergency. Why is it time to move to a politics of planetary co-creation - read my latest LinkedIn post
@ecodenker.bsky.social @groenbe.bsky.social
www.linkedin.com/pulse/beyond...
Beyond managing nature: from green to planetary politics
Why green politics must evolve into a politics of planetary co-creation. Frederic Hanusch's recent essay "Planetary Politics Begin with Sensing Agency" helped me understand why decades of green politi...
www.linkedin.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:55 AM
art4theark.bsky.social
It is a bit tragic to see how progressives are looking for the new Messiah (#Jetten in the Netherlands, #Mamdani in the US) while they still fail to understand why the authoritarian turn happened and what their role in this trend was/is.
November 5, 2025 at 11:11 AM
art4theark.bsky.social
Small edit: Europe's public debt requires revision of huge defence spending and 'explosive' fossil fuel subsidies. Sorry, Mr Putin, no money for war now. Postpone please.
#fiscalconsolidation #debt @etuc-ces.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 9:32 AM
art4theark.bsky.social
"Ethics may guide technology, but can it restrain a global race for power?" My comment on an article by Nathan Gardels of @noemamag.com on the Vatican and #AI
@timhowles.bsky.social
www.linkedin.com/posts/willy-...
‘Only God Can Save Us’ | Willy De Backer
The Vatican wants to govern AI. Silicon Valley holds the power. Ethics may guide technology, but can it restrain a global race for power? Journalist Nathan Gardels, reporting from a recent Vatican c...
www.linkedin.com
November 2, 2025 at 11:31 AM
art4theark.bsky.social
"Language trapped us tens of thousands of years ago, fundamentally altering our minds. Now, artificial intelligence not only closes the cage but potentially makes escape impossible."
#AI #Golding
@timhowles.bsky.social
www.linkedin.com/pulse/has-la...
Has language trapped humanity?
Language trapped us tens of thousands of years ago, fundamentally altering our minds. Now, artificial intelligence not only closes the cage but potentially makes escape impossible.
www.linkedin.com
November 1, 2025 at 5:56 PM
art4theark.bsky.social
Correct analysis of the Dutch election results in @groene.nl - contrary to some this is NOT a return to centrist normality. "Wilders has the country where he wants it to be"
@ecodenker.bsky.social @etui.bsky.social
www.groene.nl/artikel/stra...
October 30, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by Willy De Backer BE
peterbrannen.bsky.social
(From www.nature.com/articles/s41...)
Climate extremes likely to drive land mammal extinction during next supercontinent assembly - Nature Geoscience
The Earth may become inhospitable to land mammals in about 250 Myr owing to climate warming and drying associated with the assembly of the next supercontinent, Pangaea-Ultima, according to combined te...
www.nature.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:55 PM
art4theark.bsky.social
My new post on the Dutch elections on 29 October:
"The real question is not why the Netherlands changed. It is how long other democracies can balance prosperity, pluralism, and planetary survival before they face the same descent"
#Netherlands #Elections
www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-p...
From progressive beacon to authoritarian vanguard: the Dutch paradox explained.
On 29 October, the Netherlands will hold parliamentary elections that may confirm a dramatic shift: the country once renowned as a bastion of progressive democracy has become a leading example of Euro...
www.linkedin.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:45 AM
art4theark.bsky.social
How did the Netherlands transform from Europe's most progressive beacon in the 1960s to the vanguard of libertarian authoritarianism now? @claesdevreese.bsky.social - are there any recent academic papers which explain this fundamental shift?
#TK2025 #Netherlands @nrc.nl
claesdevreese.bsky.social Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · 16d
Latest poll of polls for Dutch elections 🗳️ 🚨

Multiple parties edging closer to each other. Still many undecided voters. At this point very hard to predict which party might lead government negotiations.

Source 🙏🏻 @peilingwijzer.bsky.social
#TK2025
October 26, 2025 at 9:30 AM
art4theark.bsky.social
Why the EU's 2026 Work Programme made me think of Daphne du Maurier's famous novel Rebecca - read my new LinkedIn post -
www.linkedin.com/pulse/europe...
#EuropeanUnion #WorkProgramme2026 #PlanetaryBoundaries #PostGrowth #China
Europe's ‘independence moment’ and the ghost it cannot name
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." - Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca In Daphne du Maurier's famous novel Rebecca, a dead woman controls a great house without ever appearing.
www.linkedin.com
October 25, 2025 at 7:44 PM
art4theark.bsky.social
Brilliant article @nilsgilman.bsky.social on #China's #modernity & the West's 'epistemic crisis'. But what if this crisis is not about accepting 'plural modernities', but about recognising that modernity itself is hitting biophysical limits that no governance model can overcome?
nilsgilman.bsky.social Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 20d
China's successful development of an indigenous non-Western modernity means that the West has to come to terms with a world no longer defined by its own liberal assumptions & institutions. My latest, feat. @kaiserkuo.bsky.social & Lizzi C. Lee: nilsgilman.substack.com/p/the-great-...
The Great Reckoning of the China Debate
Lizzi Lee and Kaiser Kuo mark two poles of the West’s intellectual impasse what China’s rise means for how we define modernity
nilsgilman.substack.com
October 23, 2025 at 9:52 AM
art4theark.bsky.social
My new post looks at the four futures of liberal democracy in the age of economic contraction and AI expansion: protective technocracy, democratic fascism, deliberative renewal & systemic redesign.
#Democracy #AIGovernance #DeliberativeDemocracy #PlanetaryBoundaries
www.linkedin.com/pulse/democr...
Democracy in the age of limits and AI
The world that gave rise to modern democracy, marked by expansion, progress, and steady growth, is gone. Liberal democracy promised better tomorrows and delivered for some, whilst extracting from the ...
www.linkedin.com
October 21, 2025 at 1:06 PM
art4theark.bsky.social
What is fascinating about this? Flood the zone with shit @timhowles.bsky.social
October 19, 2025 at 12:46 PM
art4theark.bsky.social
My latest post on LinkedIn, based on Alexa Firmenich - from EarthRise to entangled Lifeworlds
#planetaryconsciousness #posthumanism
www.linkedin.com/posts/willy-...
#planetaryconsciousness #posthumanism #entanglement #morethanhuman | Willy De Backer
Beyond the astronaut’s gaze: when Earth becomes self-aware. When astronauts took the first picture of Earth from space, the world experienced a sudden shift in consciousness. Seeing our small, fragil...
www.linkedin.com
October 18, 2025 at 2:39 PM
art4theark.bsky.social
This year’s Nobel Prize in Economics celebrates “innovation-driven growth”, just as the planet shows us the limits of growth itself. It’s time to rethink what innovation is for.
#PostGrowth #Sustainability #Innovation #PlanetaryBoundaries #CareEconomy #Doughnut
www.linkedin.com/pulse/last-h...
The last hurrah of growth economics: celebrating expansion when maturation is required
The 2025 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt "for having explained innovation-driven economic growth." This celebration of pe...
www.linkedin.com
October 15, 2025 at 12:53 PM
art4theark.bsky.social
Compared to the dull commentators' copy/paste comments on Peace in the Middle East, this analysis by @alfatau.bsky.social provides great insights into the real plans - but where is the alternative? www.linkedin.com/posts/willy-...
October 14, 2025 at 10:14 AM
art4theark.bsky.social
Dear @camlinger.bsky.social are some of the presentations of this conference available? @onachtwey.bsky.social
October 13, 2025 at 2:26 PM
art4theark.bsky.social
Neoliberalism strikes again - how the so-called 'Nobel Prize' for economy was given to economists who have never heard of the fundamental laws of physics - www.linkedin.com/pulse/book-r...
@sotiriat.bsky.social @ppochet.bsky.social @kateraworth.bsky.social
October 13, 2025 at 1:21 PM
art4theark.bsky.social
Europe stands at a crossroads between two paths: one that applies #AI wherever possible, and another that designs it with democratic purpose and planetary wisdom in mind.
#ApplyAI #AppropriateAI #DigitalSovereignty #PlanetaryBoundaries #AIethics
www.linkedin.com/pulse/europe...
Europe’s AI Crossroads: Acceleration or Planetary Wisdom?
In 1973, economist E.F.
www.linkedin.com
October 10, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Willy De Backer BE
fintwitter.bsky.social
Nobel Prize: ‘The 2025 #NobelPrize in Literature is awarded to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.”’
October 9, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by Willy De Backer BE
deutschmann.bsky.social
Ein 🧵 zu den Hauptthesen meines Buches »Die Exponentialgesellschaft« (shrk.vg/Exponential-B ):

1. In mehreren Gesellschaftsbereichen (Wirtschaft, Ökologie, pandemische Krise, Mobilität, Technologie, Demografie, Ungleichheit) haben sich in den letzten Jahr(zehnte)n exponentielle Trends zugespitzt.
Das Cover des Buches "Die Exponentialgesellschaft. Vom Ende des Wachstums zur Stabilisierung der Welt" von Emanuel Deutschmann, erschienen im Suhrkamp Verlag. Das Wort "EXPONENTIAL" formt dabei eine steil nach oben ragende Exponentialkurve. Eine Grafik, die 12 exponentielle Wachstumstrends mit steil nach oben ragenden Kurven zeigt: Weltbevölkerung, Primärenergieverbrauch, globale Wirtschaftskraft, Geldmenge Deutschlands, anthropogene Masse, Plastikproduktion, CO2, Meeresspiegelanstieg, Covid-19, Mikroporzessorleistung, akadeimsche Aufsätze, international Reisende
June 10, 2025 at 1:45 PM
art4theark.bsky.social
"The real question: can European democracies acknowledge that the institutional repertoires of post-war prosperity cannot navigate ecological emergencies, resource declines, and geopolitical fragmentation?" - my view on #France's & Europe's paralysis www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-fr...
Why France's paralysis shows Europe’s future - and how to prevent it
Four Prime Ministers in twelve months. Social protests in the streets.
www.linkedin.com
October 9, 2025 at 8:03 AM
art4theark.bsky.social
Who will win the #Nobel Prize for #Literature tomorrow? Here are the candidates according to the bookmakers lithub.com/here-are-the...
Here are the bookies’ odds for the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced next week, on Thursday, October 9. As always, to prepare myself (emotionally, I guess?), I consulted the UK betting site NicerOdds (nicer than w…
lithub.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:47 PM