It is astonishing and disturbing that there are people who see population decline as a problem. Red Jahncke column: “Couples aren’t having kids because they just don’t want to,” (March 23).

World population has tripled since the end of WWII. Every human birth puts more demands on our already stressed planet. Catastrophic climate change is looming, and with it, millions of people migrating from no longer habitable places, and many going hungry or starving. Food production is threatened as is the availability of clean drinking water. We should be looking at human population growth as we do cancer, as a threat to the host that supports it!

The U.S.-centric problems Mr. Jahncke mentions are real, but they are also temporary and solvable by people of goodwill. Asking the government to "develop incentives encouraging procreation" ranks right up there with forcing women to give birth to unwanted children. Declining to have children, or limiting oneself to only one or two, is the only responsible decision in this present day and age.

Kathryn Spindler

Groton