Welcome to the world, and sorry about the mess. We've left you a planet that seems to be warming and struggling to cope with all its inhabitants. We're not quite sure what'll happen yet, but your generation could be the makers or breakers. Find out what the scientists are saying and do something to help, even if it's only small.

But enjoy your life too ... our planet changes, but the human spirit doesn't. Never stop being fascinated by the world. Follow your heart. And stay away from fizzy drinks.

thesoftanonymous

Shift over would you, there's a good chap ...

Guru83

God, I wish I were you. I am 50 and have seen unbelievable cultural achievement and scientific advances even in my short life. I have Aids, but because of that scientific advance I might live another 25 years.

You might easily live to 125, and be around in 2135. How much I wish I could see what we might have achieved by then. Science and technology have made life better than a mere struggle for existence for a large number of people. And you will live to see it get better.

Here's to hoping that you will get to see:

• space flight to Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn

• the development of fusion energy

• the control of cancer

• real-time language to language translators

• 3D hologram entertainment.

Paulhalsall

I hereby declare you the lucky inheritor of a right old pickle.

Like you, I was born with no idea about the mess around me, but I became aware of the scale of the problem long after I'd become part of it. I blamed my parents.

Luckily, you now have me to advise you and I have no doubt you will ignore my advice and blame me for the problems in this world until you realise that we're all part of the problem and potentially part of the solution.

Our only hope is to work together and consider that, in the words of Kurt Vonnegut: "We are here to help each other through this thing, whatever it is."

Bluecloud

I am your fellow citizen of this planet, from Iraq. We all share a common ancestor and we are all heading in the same direction. Always follow the evidence, be curious, be sceptical, love science and art, never believe in superstitions that are called religion. Religion has divided us through centuries and still divides us today, but some people are growing out of it and they are thinking for themselves.

Be a human and act as a humanist. Don't ask the skies to help you or punish your enemy. Life is wonderful if you know how to live!

faisalalmutar

First, many, many congratulations. Having beaten out around 275m other little spermatozoa you're already a winner!

I fear, however, that your arrival is symbolic of a world that has spun ever more rapidly out of control. Our species is succeeding in destroying itself and one of the principal reasons for this is through the creation of ever more human life. Therein lies the paradox of reproduction. We reproduce in order to ensure the survival of the species and yet with tens of millions of couples taking that decision each year, they are directly contributing to their and their childrens' ultimate destruction.

I'll leave you to discover in your own time the reasons as to why this is so, although probably by that time there will be eight billion of us and we'll be in even more trouble than we already are.

Have no doubt that nature is going to be OK. The Earth is going to be OK. But the project of human civilisation is very far from being OK. If you are lucky enough to receive an education, you will come to learn that this is a crying shame. For our species has some very real achievements to its name. Go to Angkor Wat, Petra, Cairo, Borobudur, Machu Picchu, Rome, Florence or even Manhattan to know what I say is true.

It is incumbent upon those of us who have come before you to try to set an example in terms of addressing the issues which your arrival heralds. Some of us need to do all we can to put the issue of over-population on the top of the in-trays of policymakers worldwide. Others must restrain themselves when it comes to the quite natural, yet blissfully egocentric, impulse to reproduce. So, have a child by all means. Or two. But don't have three. Better still, have one, then adopt one more of the unwanted.

More of us need to be aware of the essential truth in the words of one of history's most humane characters, Mahatma Gandhi, that "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed". Don't be greedy.

Benjine

Don't take on debt. Debt is not wealth despite it being promoted as such. Debt only makes you a debt slave.

zephyr2

I apologise on behalf of Jeremy Paxman and the BBC for saying the world is "so overcrowded" when reporting on your arrival. What an unpleasant and wrong-minded welcome. The world isn't overcrowded - it's just badly run, and the chances are that you will become "collateral damage" for many people's profit or gain.

notozionism

There were 699,999,999,999 in the bed and the little one said rollover, so they all ... etc

ptah

Hey kid. The fact that this letter and the advice it contains has to be so completely different, depending on the circumstances into which you're born, tells you most of what you need to know about the world you're inheriting.

iruka

Follow any team but West Ham they'll ruin your life.

Cheeky68