My father was a Malthusian. He was worried that a global population of one billion was unsustainable. It is now seven billion.

He intended to have only one child, a daughter born before the second world war. I was conceived on VE Day and was probably a mistake, so I was the very first baby boomer.

Only recently, I have been reading Thomas Malthus’ 'An Essay on the Principle of Population' and found out he was born 180 years (minus one day) before me, but that his text (summarised in Chapter 2 of his 18 chapter essay) is as readable and relevant today as it was then!

He thought that only poverty would stop populations growing out of hand (exponentially compared to the geometric growth of world resources), but his generation did not have the benefits of modern contraception.

We know better, and all thinking people should stop at two children (not just one as in China, which was a mistake.) Don’t worry, if you already have three, as plenty of others have only one. It balances out in the end. Try to only have four grandchildren. That way you are replacing yourself and not increasing the global population.

This is a global problem and we need to address it globally, not just by providing access to modern contraception, but also by encouraging all nations to educate their daughters as well as telling their sons that old patriarchal rules encouraging large families are out-dated and unsustainable in today’s overcrowded world.

Then the global immigration crisis would go away!

This may seem a long shot, but it worked in Bangladesh, one of the most overcrowded countries I have visited or worked in; so it should work elsewhere, if governments can be persuaded that sheer weight of numbers does not constitute political strength!

Well done, Charles Bulman, for his Podium piece (February 18) highlighting this issue, and I hope others will agree.

Readers may like to know that there is a South Lakeland campaigning group of ‘Population Matters’ that meets every couple of months.

Contact e-mail: south-cumbria-population-matters@outlook.com

Donald Holliday

Windermere