OUT OF CONTROL David Suzuki at UPEI

by James Connolly

“In 30 years there will be no _ wilderness left on the planet except for tiny isolated islands,” explained David Suzuki, “if we con- tinue at our present assault rate of the environment.”

When Dr. David Suzuki visited UPEI last Tuesday af- ternoon, more than 600 stu- dents, faculty, and visitors came to the ‘pit’ to hear about our environment and its decay.

Experts agree that at present rates, there will be no virgin coastal rainforest in British Columbia in 15 years. In 150 years, 50% of all an- imal and plant species on earth will be extinct. That figure will increase to 80% in only 50 years.

Suzuki, trying to answe. his 7 year old daughter’s question “Daddy, are there any of these [animals] left in the world?”, told us that our governments are living by a myth. “The sacred truth of economics is that we must maintain steady growth... but exponential growth can never continue indefinitely.”

The choice of our govern- ments is to slow down growth and production. “If we don’t slow down now voluntarily,

war, famine, and disease wili slow us.”

Suzuki brought home his point with a Native Indian proverb that we don’t inherit the planet from our parents,

ST. JOHN’S (CUP) - Students don’t know much about sex according to a re- cently published survey on the sexual behaviour and at- titudes of 1,547 Memorial University students.

= ts al agtae

= Thursday, November 19 1987 =

ne a tne nessun tocinetionyimaiinane

“We borrow the planet from our children.” :

rather we borrow it from our children.

“We want to leave the world a better place for our children,” continued Dr. Suzuki. “Now, for the first time in history, our children come into a world more im- poverished than the world of their parents.”

Suzuki’s point is that all change must be political. Ac- cording to him, environmen- tal issues must be part of the political platforms. It’s the future of our children we’re dealing with.

Although Suzuki had nothing but praise for

the majority of politicians, he did have one complaint, and that is almost all of them come from a background in law or business.

“They [politicians] know virtually nothing about sci- ence and technology. They are scientifically illiterate— yet they make the deci- sions...”

Just before going out to sign copies of his autobiogra- phy Metamorphosis, stages in a life, David Suzuki asked us “How do you ask a ques- tion? What is real? What is discovery? Science has to show that current ideas are wrong, and that only truth will stand the test of time.”

student

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STUDENTS FAIL SEX TEST |

percent rated good and three per cent rated excellent.

“We know that young people are sexually active, but they have a poor knowl-

edge of sexual anatomy and sexual functioning,” said Dr.

Memorial’s School of Social Work.

Sachdev’s study reported that 80 per cent of ‘students had “poor sex-

Paul Sachdev, a professor at | ual knowledge” while only 17

Highest scores went to students studying medicine and nursing, while students in So- cial Sciences, Education and Humanities and finally Phys- ical Sciences scored lower. But even among medical stu- dents, seven in ten rated poor in the sexual knowledge test. :

: scored — higher than men overall. -

Women

The. survey showed that most students were sexually active — almost 70 per cent of the men and 60 per cent of

5

women had engaged in inter- course within the six months prior to the survey.

Men have

and women still significantly different attitudes toward. sexual be- haviour, according to the study. Two-thirds of the men surveyed approved of pre- marital sex compared to only one-half of the women.

Sachdev concludes that more sexuality courses need to be introduced into the ed- ucation system.

“For those people who have chosen to engage in sexual activity, information must be available ‘so they can learn how to have safe and responsible sex,” he said.

The survey was based on a 44-question true or false questionnaire and students

“answered anonymously. a

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