How long will the next dark ages of human civilization last, if it happens at all? Hopefully less than a decade.

To many Republicans, it seems like the sanctity of life only applies before birth.

Meanwhile, after birth, the troubles of this world seem to be getting more and more overwhelming to just about everyone, regardless of political orientation.

The number of people seeking safety by crossing borders and the number of troubled people needing assistance, both here in USA and abroad, seems so overwhelming that there have been many recent radio interviews about "charity fatigue."

As for climate change, the last few decades have seen huge numbers of people in India, China and other places around the world, rise out of poverty. This has contributed to the rising carbon footprint. There are slightly over 8 billion people on the planet.

We can make it work better, but a good question is, "do we have the political will to create a sustainable world and maintain societies that are not too authoritarian?"

Reducing population growth and accepting alternative lifestyles can play an important role as mainstream population growth and addiction to wealth seem destine to conflict.

Alternative can be defined in many ways such as simpler lifestyles in terms of consumption. Another definition of "alternative" comes to mind regarding sexuality and family situations. Alternative is a broad topic and much needed in today's world.

If the world does teeter into another dark age, one possible silver lining is that modern dark ages can be short lived. Europe went through the holocaust in a matter of just a decade followed by a period of greater idealism.

I was born into that era of idealism as my first memories of news are out of the 1960s. Yes, the cold war worries and pollution worries were there, but most of the decades of my life have seen a great deal of peace activism, civil rights progress, scientific progress, talk of a more sustainable world and rising standards of living in many parts of the world.

My early childhood memories, about Europe, was the rise of the Beetles in UK. I was in 3rd grade when the Beetles were on Ed Sullivan. World War II seemed like it was long over by then.