Dear friend,

Do you ever feel like there's no point in trying to do good? You know, you try your best to make a positive impact, make the world a better place, help others along the way but suddenly you hear news of hundreds of animal species disappearing, journalists being murdered, and fascist getting elected to serve as presidents; and that's just the past month... 
Sometimes, on days (and weeks and months and years...) like these, it's easy to fall into the pit of despair, but we don't have the luxury to stay there for long for there's no alternative, no planet B. We must keep on fighting. 
Here is a list of 6 facts to empower you that prove the world is doing better than we think for when you feel like giving up.

Speaking of fascists getting elected to serve as president... Jair Bolsanaro is now the president of Brasil. He has very controversial (!) opinions on many subjects from LGBTQ rights to freedom of speech, to climate change. He thinks climate change is nothing more than "greenhouse fables" and is planning on withdrawing from the Paris Agreement á la his fasch buddy Trump. Considering Brasil is home to a third of the world’s rainforests this is terrifying.

We have a lot of work to do in regards to fighting the effects of this electoral disaster; you can start by donating to Cool Earth, a charity protecting the world's rainforests and fighting deforestation.

In better — otter — news, The US Supreme court just denied a petition from a group of fishermen associations asking for the reinstallment of a No Otter Zone in the waters they fish in. The court case, which had been going for a few years, had become a debate about the US legal system and separation of powers and conservative groups were pushing for the No Otter Zone. Alas, luckily they lost and otters are still free to go wherever they want.  Read the whole story about how sea otters became involved in American politics.