Good News for Humankind
A daily dose of inspiration and inquiry.
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November 9, 2026 Good News for Humankind 🌏
Renewables overtake coal in global electricity mix for a full year for the first timeFor the first time over a full year, renewables generated more of the world’s electricity than coal. Ember’s review of 2025 found renewables at 33.8% and coal at 33.0%, and coal’s share fell below one-third for the first time. Solar did most of the work. It grew 30% and alone met three-quarters of the rise in demand, and fossil generation fell in both China and India for the first time this century. The shift is real but early. Coal is still the largest single source, fossil power fell only 0.2%, and U.S. and E.U. fossil power rose. Ember expects clean power to keep fossil generation flat before it starts to decline. ​Read more​
Georgia elects Keisha Lance Bottoms as the first Black woman governor in U.S. historyKeisha Lance Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, won Georgia’s governor race on Nov. 3 and is set to become the first Black woman governor of any U.S. state. No Black woman had ever served as a governor, and she will also be Georgia’s first woman governor. She won in a state that had not elected a Democratic governor since 1998, with about 54% of the vote. She tied her win to her family’s roots in Georgia, which go back at least five generations, and pledged to be “a governor for everyone.” She takes office in January. Republicans controlled both chambers of the legislature going in, so how much of her plan can pass is open. But a barrier that had held in every state has come down. ​Read more​
New Hampshire elects Chris Pappas as the first openly gay man in the U.S. SenateDemocrat Chris Pappas won New Hampshire’s open U.S. Senate seat on Nov. 3 and is the first openly gay man elected to the Senate. Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay person elected to it in 2012, and Kyrsten Sinema became the first openly bisexual senator in 2018. Pappas, 46, grew up working in his family’s Manchester restaurant and has served four terms in the U.S. House. He told supporters that voters “simply have had enough,” and said he is “ready to fight with everything I’ve got.” Reports showed only early returns when the race was called, so the final margin is not yet clear. But another barrier in the Senate has come down. ​Read more​
China’s mangroves have nearly tripled since 1998China’s mangroves more than doubled in area from 1998 to 2020, from about 26,000 acres to about 70,000, according to a study by Ningbo University researchers in The Innovation. Recorded bird species in those forests rose from 148 to 397, and recorded threatened species from 11 to 21. Policy, planting, and warming helped the forests grow, and the authors suggest cleaner coastal water and richer plankton fed the birds. The bird counts may partly reflect more birdwatchers, and thicker mangroves can crowd out mudflats that shorebirds need. China also holds only about 0.2% of the world’s mangroves, so the gains are real but small on a global scale. ​Read more​
Argentina and Uruguay start service on world’s largest electric ferryAn electric ferry that can carry 2,100 passengers and 225 vehicles began commercial service on the River Plate on Oct. 22. Built by Incat in Tasmania for Argentina’s Buquebus, the China Zorrilla runs on a battery above 40 megawatt-hours. It makes the 34-mile trip between Buenos Aires and Colonia, Uruguay, with about 40 minutes of charging per one-way crossing. Incat’s chairman says it proves large commercial vessels can run on electric power. Baird Maritime says ships like this are practical only where plentiful renewable or nuclear power exists. No source gives range, energy use, or measured emissions savings, and this is one ship on one route. ​Read more​
These milestones – past, present, and future – have been added to the Archive of Human Genius. To access, use the password: youareagenius.
Take Action 💥Help families fleeing Yemen’s escalating warFrom Doctors Without Borders: Since September, escalating fighting on Yemen’s western coast has displaced more than 230,000 people, many of them not for the first time. Our teams are running mobile clinics, supporting health centers, and working at a hospital in Mokha, while displaced families in camps struggle to find clean water, latrines, and basic medicines. The need is far ahead of the funding. The World Health Organization has secured only $3.78 million of the $31 million it needs for a 90-day emergency response, and cholera cases have tripled in three weeks. Your gift helps our medical teams keep treating children, pregnant women, and people running out of medication for chronic illness.
Updates from Peter 👋Hi beautiful people, Honestly, I couldn’t quite remember when I started publishing good news until I did a little research. When I dug into it, I confirmed what I suspected: it was almost exactly a decade ago, in October 2016, that I started regularly publishing good news. Over that span, I've considered many times whether it was time to let go of the good news work and step more fully into other parts of what I do. But something always stopped me. I personally get a lot out of starting my day going through my good news feed. It gives a little spark of hope and inspiration, as well as a sense of purpose in sharing it with you. And in a world so consumed by doom, gloom, despair, complaint, etc., it felt like a quiet kind of disruption. More recently, it has even felt like an important differentiator in the coaching world. When so many coaches focus almost exclusively on inner work, crushing goals, actualizing the self, my work has always been about more than that. It's been about engaging with the world in a healthy way and actually contributing something meaningful in trying times. It's about connecting the inner work to the outer work. The good news always feels like a reminder to myself and others that there's a world out there that needs us. That all still rings true. But I'm increasingly finding that the work that lights me up most is elsewhere. It's in writing my book. It's in writing music. It's in creating and facilitating events that help people venture deeper into themselves and gain clarity on how they want to move forward. And all that, plus good news, plus two kids, plus trying to live a healthy, balanced life myself feels like a lot. Not very antihero of me. I'm not quite sure what comes next. But I do know something is going to change, whether that's eliminating the good news work altogether or simply making it a smaller part of my offering. I know that may disappoint some of you. But for me, it's a commitment to my core philosophy: in a world dominated by more, more, more, consciously, intentionally doing less, knowing when to let go and make room for the next evolution of our work. This newsletter will operate as usual through the end of the year. But after that, all bets are off! In the meantime, if you have any ideas or reactions, I'm all ears. Love,
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​Good News for Humankind
A daily dose of inspiration and inquiry.