With first the UK’s decision to commit Brexit and then the US’s vote to elect President Donald Trump, it may feel to many like 2016 is going pretty terribly.

It all started with David Bowie dying, of course, and since then the liberal West has taken a hell of a beating at the hands of movements of the disenfranchised working class, nationalists and anti-immigrant parties across Europe and America.

Clearly for 52 per cent of the voting British public and 58.7 million Americans, these developments are a positive step in the right direction.

For everyone else - 58.55 million Americans (at time of writing) and the 48 per cent - here are some glimmers of hope to cheer you up.

There are positives in the election itself

Tuesday’s vote was not just about the woman or, in the end, man in the White House.

The ballot also included many seats in the Senate and House of Congress, and one battle in particular has garnered a lot of national attention.

In North Carolina, a law requiring citizens to use public toilets that correspond with their “biological” gender - widely seen as a transphobic measure - is now likely to be repealed after Democrat Roy Cooper won the seat over incumbent Republican Pat McCrory. Cooper had campaigned on the basis of overturning the so-called “bathroom law”.

Keep calm and get high

People in these three states can at least now smoke to get over their problems (The Independent does not advise smoking to get over your problems).

Coincidentally, they all also voted for Hillary Clinton.

An election of firsts

Voters in Oregon elected openly LGBT governor Kate Brown, the first time that has ever happened. Brown, who was outed as bisexual in 1980, was actually the incumbent, but only after the state’s elected governor resigned in 2014.

In Minnesota, voters elected the first ever Somali-American legislator. Ilhan Omar, a 34-year-old Muslim who was granted asylum in the US as a child, was elected to state legislature representing Minneapolis' district 60B.

The first ever Latina senator was elected in Nevada. Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, the granddaughter of a Mexican immigrant, beat Representative Joe Heck to fill the seat of retiring Senator Harry Reid.

And Kamala Harris made a whole load of history in California. Ms Harris, who is biracial, becomes California’s first black senator, the first black female senator since 1999, only the second ever black female senator and the first ever Indian-American senator. And breathe.

It might not last

Lots of people have been comparing the election to the Brexit vote (no one more than the President-elect himself).

But as journalist Caroline Criado-Perez points out, if the US is not happy it can always throw Mr Trump out again in four years’ time. Leaving the EU would be permanent.

And you never know - maybe there could be an Obama in the White House again by the end of 2020.

Never mind the election!

If you can tear your gaze away from the US for a moment, there are always positives to be found.

For people in the UK who still haven’t come to terms with Brexit, there’s still a small chance Britain might not turn its back on progressive Europe and the single market after all.

And for those in England specifically, Joe Root got a century today in the Test match cricket.

Plus, it’s almost Christmas. And that means, either tomorrow (most likely) or Friday, the new John Lewis advert is going to come out. So, there’s that.

Plus, it might not be the end of the world

One of the biggest concerns about a Trump presidency, if you are a human/resident of Earth, is his history of claiming climate change is “fictional” or a Chinese hoax.

He has vowed to “cancel” the Paris Agreement, which represents the world’s best chance at limiting global warming to within 2C. Those are still dangerous levels, but it could easily be worse.

But speaking from the sidelines of the annual UN climate summit going on now in Marrakech, one major US lobbyist thinks it won’t be as bad as all that.

Kevin Fay is executive director of the International Climate Change Partnership and a man with a wealth of experience pushing environmental reforms through the top levels of US politics.

He told Climate Home’s Lou Del Bello today: “We’ve gone through this kind of uncertainty [before], when the Reagan administration came into office.

“A lot of people thought that was going to be the end of the world. That turned out not to be, but there was a steep learning curve when they came into office.

“I think we’ve got the same situation now with Trump coming in - he’s going to have to get straight with his own party in Congress.

“[With the Reagan administration] there were a lot of mistakes made, but ultimately the Montreal Protocol - which Reagan personally authorised - is now the most successful multilateral environment treaty ever adopted.”