R QUIRK'S letter (October 3, 'I'd love to see Greta quizzed') swung from denying the greenhouse effect caused by vastly increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere to the underlying cause of the impending catastrophe, namely the explosive increase in human population which is presiding over the ruin of the planet.

More and more humans appropriate more and more resources with the result the natural world is being destroyed, plant and animal life both, at an unprecedented rate.

Just how it can be done I do not know but, unless a controlled version of the human extinction that Extinction Rebellion warns us of takes place, there is a poor future for life on the planet.

Our world survived as a viable entity until about 300 years ago when the Anthropocene Age began and human population started its growth from maybe one billion towards a predicted and completely unsustainable ten billion.

The essential message of Extinction Rebellion is right; the only question is how fast it is practical for the de-carbonisation process to take place without causing unacceptable suffering: but they must campaign equally hard for a drastic reduction in birth rate worldwide or we're doomed anyway.

S. Pighills

Kendal