OPINION:
Your editorial, “It happens every summer” (Web, July 2), which addresses climate change, contains the following excerpt: “Blythe Pepino, a 33-year-old Londoner, started Birthstrike in 2018 to voice her view that reproducing consigns the next generation to suffer the consequences of climate change and will inevitably produce heat waves, floods, droughts, famine and the heartbreak of psoriasis. Her pledge to forswear childbirth has been echoed by 450 others caught up in climate fear.”
But humans have endured these problems throughout history. And the birthrates for all the developed countries in the world are now below replacement level. Toward the end of this century, the world population will start to decrease. Ms. Pepino’s cited band of 450 childless women will not make a whit’s difference in the overall population.
Ms. Pepino is not doing herself any favors, as it has been known for centuries that childless women have an increased risk of breast cancer. This includes women whose only pregnancy is aborted.
JOHN NAUGHTON
Silver Spring, Md.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.