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Kate Mackenzie

@katemac.bsky.social
19K followers 3.7K following 1.8K posts

finance, energy, climate, geopolitics, industrial policy @thepolycrisis.bsky.social in Australia -> DMs hard to retrieve, best to email

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Kate Mackenzie
Ann M. Lipton @annmlipton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
seriously, SpaceX showed the way and Anthropic is following it. Selective leaks of the "confidential" prospectus to gin up enthusiasm for the IPO, which is wildly illegal under the federal securities laws but no one cares about that anymore www.reuters.com/legal/transa...
reuters.com
EXCLUSIVE: Anthropic leaders to control AI lab via 'Founder LLC' to promote public good over market forces
Anthropic has long positioned itself as the virtuous AI company. An early look at its IPO filing shows how it is creating a new "Founder LLC" vehicle ​aimed at serving the common good, while insulatin...
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Remember when we thought investors might mobilize in ways sufficient to protect the world from climate change
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 27/09/2026
Remember the random dude who got 49020939 articles of uncritical media coverage in the space of two days because he quit anthropic based on his fears of existential AI risk? Yeah..........he's a climate denier. So is the whole AI industry. www.crikey.com.au/2026/09/22/a...
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Crowding out
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Tom Flood @tomflood.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
priorities.
white text on fuchsia 

It would be really fucking great if we prioritized housing for humans the way we do housing for cars.
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility
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turtlyburtly @turtlyburtly.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
my favorite part of this interview is actually when dumbass #1 asked dumbass #2 about climate change and the response was, uh, really something (screenshots in thread)
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kate conger @kateconger.com · 24/09/2026
This behavior is different than previous A.I. breakouts, in which agents were instructed to demonstrate hacking skills to pass cybersecurity benchmarks and gained unauthorized internet access. It also accounts for the Australian gov't hack announced today
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Mark Gongloff @markgongloff.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Private jets exemplify what economists call a free-rider problem: They crowd & pollute the airspace & environment that belongs to everyone without paying an appropriate cost. In fact, we keep giving them tax breaks Gift link to my @opinion.bloomberg.com column: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
bloomberg.com
Private Jets Have a Free-Rider Problem
If you try to take a free ride on, say, public transit in New York City, you’ll get in trouble with the law. If your mode of transportation is a private jet, on the other hand, there’s a high risk you...
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Scoiattolo @scarnecchia.net · 21/09/2026
Imagine if all the evidence for climate change was "a bunch of guys on a website thought very hard about it and agreed it was very bad and might happen" instead of empiricism.
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Who’s next?
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Desert Boy @bakefreeordie.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
So yeah, I’m not excited for the child porn generator run by a Nazi to drive m to the fucking airport, nor to start conversations about my personal life or share my work with a sycophantic chatbot encouraging me to kill myself.
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Reposted by Kate Mackenzie
Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
15/ The *scale* of the US investment in datacenters is staggering. Other countries are having similar conversations about the effect of AI on economic development, electricity and land etc but hard to compete with US financial sector & technological dominance of AI firms @katemac.bsky.social
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Pretty rotten. Even tho Pakistan avoided billions in LNG costs because of all their solar… they still have a lot of LNG dependency, legacy baked in a decade ago. Bangladesh is even worse position
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 18/09/2026
I love this slide. I really don't think the geopolitical implications of the clean energy transition have sunk in for most people.
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Paul Kelleher @paulkelleher.net · 17/09/2026
marty spitting (error) bars
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Goated quote from the late Marty Weitzman in @geoffmann.bsky.social lecture at Sydney Uni SSPS
“To summarize, the economics of climate change
consists of a very long chain of tenuous inferences fraught with big uncertainties in every
link: beginning with unknown base-case GHG emissions; compounded by big uncertainties
about how available policies and policy levers will affect actual GHG emissions; compounded
by big uncertainties about how GHG flow emissions accumulate via the carbon cycle into
GHG stock concentrations; compounded by big uncertainties about how and when GHG
stock concentrations translate into global average temperature changes; compounded by
big uncertainties about how global average temperature changes decompose into specific
changes in regional weather patterns; compounded by big uncertainties about how adapta-
tions to, and mitigations of, climate change damages at a regional level are translated into
regional utility changes via an appropriate ‘‘damages function’’; compounded by big 
uncertainties about how future regional utility changes are aggregated into a worldwide utility
function and what its overall degree of risk aversion should be; compounded by big uncer-
tainties about what discount rate should be used to convert everything into expected present
discounted values. The result of this lengthy cascading of big uncertainties is a reduced form
of truly extraordinary uncertainty about the aggregate welfare impacts of catastrophic climate
change, which is represented mathematically by a PDF that is spread out and heavy with
probability in the tails.
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Nick (derogatory) ✨ @slothropsmap.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
“Dumb suckers should’ve bought an EV like me,” I taunt, seconds before remembering that I too must eat food to survive.
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Reposted by Kate Mackenzie
POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 15/09/2026
Canberra is watching Canada’s attempt to build a closer relationship with the European Union and is aligned with Ottawa on the issue, according to Don Farrell, Australia's trade minister.
politico.eu
Australia ‘on the same page’ as Canada on deepening EU ties, says key minister
Australia’s trade minister said his country will “take great interest” in what Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pursues with Brussels.
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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 23/06/2026
Another striking chart from our report: The correlation between the fossil fuel share in the energy mix and the inflation rate during the two most recent inflationary episodes. The only exit from this cycle: renewables and electrification. What does that have to do with the ECB? A lot! 3/
Figure 2: Fossil fuel share in the energy mix vs. inflation rate
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Mike MacFerrin @icesheetmike.myatproto.social · 15/09/2026
The biggest thing, to me, is that @rude1.blacksky.team is building what I believe is what social media should’ve always been from the start. BlueSky gets credit for getting AT Protocol off the ground, but BlackSky is really delivering the vision, IMO. I believe in what they’re doing.
noirpress.org
Rudy Fraser on Black Sky and the Fight for an Independent Internet
Rudy Fraser explains how Black Sky is building a community-controlled internet beyond surveillance, censorship, and corporate algorithms.
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Reposted by Kate Mackenzie
Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 13/09/2026
MIT wants to remake education around what AI can't do. They propose oral exams and to center social interactions. I cannot help but notice this is the *opposite* of the K-12 “school reform” edtech movement—which wants to put kids in front of computerized tests & collect data. Short 🧵
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Nathan Tankus @nathantankus.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
"needs to have a stake". You mean... an equity stake? I'm pretty sure that is actually a surreptitious reference to an equity stake...
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advait @advaitarun.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I’m back in @phenomenalworld.bsky.social with @70sbachchan.bsky.social and @katemac.bsky.social taking stock of the disaster in Nepal and how global austerity will constrain its recovery—with pessimistic implications for global climate adaptation challenges. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/dis...
phenomenalworld.org
Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay, & Advait Arun | Disaster and Constraint
How can Nepal and other countries facing climate catastrophe recover and rebuild amid rising borrowing costs and reduced aid?
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Reposted by Kate Mackenzie
Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
While this narrative persists among AI folks that the AI can "disobey" them despite their telling it to be good, how the heck are they ever going to take responsibility? Melanie Mitchell explains it superbly here. aiguide.substack.com/p/misleading...
aiguide.substack.com
Misleading Metaphors, Real Risks
What To Fear from AI Agents and How to Reclaim Our Human Agency
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
burst into tears when this Nepal story said the number of kids: 47-year-old principal of a school who made a split second decision to evacuate 1,643 students and teachers to higher ground, after initially thinking it would be safe 60 metres above the river. www.indiatoday.in/world/story/...
indiatoday.in
How a Nepali teacher's quick thinking saved 1,643 children from monster floods
A Nepali school principal rushed 1,643 children to safety after a warning that muddy floodwaters were surging towards their school. His split-second decision came as a glacier-triggered disaster tore ...
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Imagine a country had a 9/11 traumatic deadly and destructive episode and the whole world reacted with sympathy for just a day and then moved on. @katemac.bsky.social @advaitarun.bsky.social and I reflect on the world after the roof comes crashing down. bsky.app/profile/kate...
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
a lot of things stood out to me about Nepal when writing this piece with @70sbachchan.bsky.social @advaitarun.bsky.social
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Sure you peasants may freeze in the dark once in a while, but dont you realise Eric Schmidt says energy demand for AI is infinite and we are never going to meet our climate goals anyway, so we may as well bet on building AI to solve the problem?
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
the terrible landslide & flash flood in the Himalayas was shocking; and it comes at the same time as finances everywhere for public investment are constrained
phenomenalworld.org
Mackenzie, Sahay, Arun | Polycrisis
How can Nepal and other countries facing climate catastrophe recover and rebuild amid rising borrowing costs and reduced aid?
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Himalayas catastrophe, El Niño, Treasuries/rising costs of govt borrowing in rich countries .. it’s not a good combination. We wrote about it all: @70sbachchan.bsky.social
phenomenalworld.org
Mackenzie, Sahay, Arun | Polycrisis
How can Nepal and other countries facing climate catastrophe recover and rebuild amid rising borrowing costs and reduced aid?
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Reposted by Kate Mackenzie
Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Me striding into the building society to renegotiate my 5-year fix
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This scoop by my colleagues is really alarming, it reflects a troubling shift in how some AI researchers are operating. Ultimately very hard for Aisi do its work in a world of heightened geopolitical tension and competition:
ft.com
Anthropic withheld latest AI model from UK testing agency
Decision to exclude Aisi has prompted fears inside British government of protectionist shift among tech groups
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Feels like something important is going on in terms of how markets perceive DM vs EM fiscal discipline. This from & about Norwegian oil fund via @katie0martin.ft.com
High government debt has gone from being a distinctive feature of individual countries, particularly Japan and some euro area countries, to becoming a more general characteristic of developed economies.

Mic drop there from the Norwegians. This is an articulation of something that, deep down, we all know to be true. Government debt, including US government debt, is just not the pristine risk-free asset we’ve all pretended it is for the past few
‌
‌“By contrast, as the fund says, corporate and, for example, mortgage-backed bonds, make it worth your while and often perform at least part of the same safety-net purpose. They are not necessarily as liquid in a crisis as government bonds, but a fund the size of this is not exactly short of liquid assets. And at least this kind of debt pays the holder something of a premium.”
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Reposted by Kate Mackenzie
Prof. Eliot Jacobson @climatecasino.net · 09/09/2026
One more totally fucking nuts graph for today, care of a request by @leonsimons.com. Not only is the current standard deviation for the Nino 3.4 sea-surface temperature above 4SD over the 1982-2011 mean for the first time on record, but no previous year even reached 3SD.
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Jesse Raub @jesseraub.online · 08/09/2026
PEOPLE WITH LIBERAL ARTS DEGREES: so while i see there is utility to the system, i’m more or less morally opposed to their current constructs and have big concerns over the business structure and environmental impact WEB CODER: so i met God today,
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Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · 08/09/2026
There's climate hushing and and then there's climate HUSHING
npr.org
As Nepal identifies those killed in the floods, questions grow over China's reporting
One week after the deadly floods, very little is known about China's dead or missing. China's control over media and digital censorship is in stark contrast to open reporting in Nepal.
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"not only a meteorological water event, but majorly a geomorphological debris event, conveyed by water". We've been writing about the Hamilayas disaster and a banal but disturbing thing is how there isn't easy language to describe what will become increasingly common
sandrp.in
Himalayan Floods Are Not Just a Water Event, They Are a Debris Event
As I write this, over 1,200 people are dead across Nepal and China, and nearly 5500 more are missing. About 900 people are trapped in hydropower tunnels clogged by debris. Herculean national and in…
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Lots of angles in this story but I wonder what exactly were the terms of the Australian govt's $32m equity investment? Any conditionality to keep jobs in Australia? @cameronwilson.bsky.social www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09...
abc.net.au
Aussie startup cuts staff, pivots to US after $32m government outlay
Harrison.ai is laying off staff and pivoting to a new US business model, a year after receiving a $32 million investment from the federal government to keep the company in Australia.
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
@katemac.bsky.social & I 3 years ago on how European centrist parties policies of fiscal austerity were creating the far-right. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/car... bsky.app/profile/edha...
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
it's like a visual "what kind of triangle is this?" trick
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MORZZ @mmorzz.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Pandora, ten minutes *after* opening her box: “This is a time that calls for extreme caution…”
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
A thought I have all the time
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
7/ What socio-political or geo-economic forces can contain the AI Kings of Silicon Valley driving catastrophe? @katemac.bsky.social In order: (1) US democracy (2) Fragility of their finances (3) 'China Scale' & 'China price' of AI frontier models (Itself a function of immense Chinese tech talent)
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Very helpful thread
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
It's the Atlantic hurricane season's quietest start in 60 years… One big reason? The developing El Niño is helping create stronger winds higher up in the atmosphere, which can tear apart developing storms before they have a chance to strengthen. weather.com/2026/09/04/s...
weather.com
Atlantic hurricane season's least active start in 60 years
We've had five tropical storms, but they've been short-lived. The total activity is now at its lowest in the satellite era through early September, thanks to El Niño.
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 05/09/2026
ok I wasn't going to get involved but actually the top here is just far too American, please join my campaign and vote for me as one of the dozens - dozens! - of non-yanks on the site, thank you bsky38.com
bsky38.com
38 Most Influential Bluesky Posters of 2026
Vote for the 38 most influential Bluesky posters of 2026.
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
most of the supposed benefits of climate change will pan out like this
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Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The Panama Canal uses a tremendous amount of fresh water. Chronic regional drought combined with a super El Niño are going to create another big bottleneck for global trade.
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