PETER Hill's letter (HAS, July 6) expresses the fears which many of us feel about changes in our weather. He puts his finger on the most likely cause of our problems in his first sentence - "the growth of human population" - and claims "realistically, there is little that can be done about it".

In the long term there is. We in Western Europe have discovered the best and most effective way to steady population growth. A good dose of prosperity has been shown to be the best contraceptive yet devised. In global terms, we need prosperity to stabilise the world population.

Creating world prosperity while keeping climate changes within reasonable bounds will be very difficult - but that is the task facing world leaders in the next generation.

I would add that an inch of rain falling on one acre yields about 100 tons of water, not the 64,000 tons quoted by Mr Hill.

Peter Wilson, Barnard Castle, Co Durham.