SIR – How refreshing. John Phillpott and the Green Party agreeing on something (Worcester News, May 19).

The world population has powered from two billion to more than seven billion in a lifetime and it is unsustainable.

The environment on which society, the economy and the rest of life on earth depends is creaking under the strain.

We face a clutch of related crises; climate change, deforestation, loss of topsoil, over-fishing, water shortages, species extinction and conflict over energy supplies and other resources.

“Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” is no longer a helpful imperative.

We must seek ways of curbing our fecundity.

Attempts to do this by governmental coercion, or forced sterilisation, have been tried elsewhere and found to be ineffective and hugely resented.

Empowerment of women in the developing world through improved health standards, better education and access to contraception would be a good start.

But the industrialised West contributes to the problem, as each newborn has a lifetime environmental footprint many times that of children in other parts of the world.

We need to establish new cultural attitudes to these inter-related problems and strong consensual political leadership at local, national and international levels. Our current polarised, winner-takes-all political model, Right/Left, Republican/Democrat, is outmoded and does not favour long-term stable decision-making. This is why Neil Laurenson strove for a more balanced council cabinet following his election as a Green councillor earlier this month.

ROBERT WILKINS Worcester Green Party