Population threat

Ian Maxfield (Letters, 18 June) 
assures us that the Catholic Church will continue to look after creation. That creation (however it may have come about) now numbers more than seven billion people, with many more on the way.

Even if we reduce consumption of fossil fuels, we will still be drinking water, using fertilisers to increase crop yields to feed ourselves, and cutting down forests to create fields in which to raise these crops. Substantially more people will result in increasing use of our natural resources and increased damage to the environment from that use.

So before the Pope lectures us on our moral responsibilities with respect to the environment, he might take a hard look at himself and his Church’s morally indefensible stand against contraception.

This has caused much harm already and threatens to cause even more in the future. Removing his Church’s opposition to contraception will help the environment much more than him telling us to ride bicycles rather than drive cars.

Alistair McBay

National Secular Society

Atholl Crescent

Edinburgh