“Earth Day ain’t what it used to be,” Swamp Rabbit said. “A lot of peeps don’t celebrate it. For all they care, it might as well be Penguin Awareness Day.”

I told him to stop exaggerating. Most thinking people are still eager to observe Earth Day, which took place on April 22, just as it has in every year since the first time it was celebrated, in 1970. But yes, the rightwing backlash against efforts to clean up the planet has grown to the point where many Americans feel we might lose the war against Big Oil and other destructive forces.

“Look at the news,” Swamp Rabbit said. “Georgia’s on fire. A 5,000-mile-long heat wave is gonna hit the West Coast this summer. The orange hog monster and his gang are canceling wind farms and trying to bring back coal-fired power stations. We ain’t winning, that’s for sure.”

He was in a glass-half-empty frame of mind, which was understandable. Average temperatures are still rising. Endangered species are dying. Plastics are everywhere. Deforestation is ongoing. Government funding for EVs has been cut and $70,000 gas guzzlers are back in vogue.

Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator appointed by Trump, is a duplicitous hack who is making a mockery of everything the EPA once stood for. What he’s in charge of could more accurately be named the Environmental Destruction Agency.

The Republican Congress is still an obstacle. And the U.S. Supreme Court which, in 2016, ushered in the era of the shadow docket by issuing a one-paragraph ruling that quickly derailed Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The driving force behind this setback for Planet Earth was Chief Justice “Sneaky John” Roberts, the so-called moderate who has since played a key role in advancing Trump’s reactionary agenda.

“But the good guys can still win,” I said, noting that the public response to the inception of Earth Day resulted in passage of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and other eco-friendly legislation that Republican yahoos have whittled away at over the years but failed to overturn.

The batteries used in EVs and clean power grids are becoming more affordable and efficient. Yahoos are less inclined to laugh at the idea of sustainability when “the market” is no longer on their side. In Philadelphia, where I live, the rivers are no longer giant oil slicks and improvement efforts are underway at FDR Park, Fairmount Park, the Cobbs Creek area and so on.

“But them greed hounds still rule,” Swamp Rabbit said. “Big Oil is bigger than ever because of that Iran war.”

I pooh-poohed him. “The war will inspire sane people everywhere to work harder on transitioning from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources. Earth Day is a reminder to do the right thing.”

“Penguin Awareness Day is January 20,” I added. “Might as well celebrate that, too.”

Footnote: Maybe the headline should be “Will Earth survive the current dark age.”