I SALUTE Kent Brooks for his letter ‘Too many on this planet’ (Gazette, June 27). It takes courage to raise one’s head above the parapet to highlight what is the greatest threat of our time – the question of the exploding human population.

If there is any denial going on in the political debate, this is it. Never mind climate change denial or Brexit denial, this is the one which is going to catch up with Homo sapiens.

The UN statistics are available for any one to examine and although the rate of human population increase has slowed down, estimates for a future of 10 or 11 billion are being made.

As Sir David Attenborough (patron of the Population Matters group) says: "All our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people, and harder - and ultimately impossible - to solve with ever more people."

From large species like elephants, to insects, to marine life, the future looks bleak. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has recently spotlighted the extreme threat to the environment posed by plastics and the difficulty in bringing it under control. It is not simply the number of folk on the planet but the undeniable aspirations of those in developing countries to a standard of living enjoyed in the West.

The resources required for all to have cars, washing machines, foreign holidays etc would put massive pressure on the planet even if numbers were miraculously to fall. Behind this is the economics of endless growth without which public finances would wither. Not an easy question to raise and even more difficult to answer.

Charles Bulman

Brigsteer