The recent documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, showed gripping images of global environmental changes, including the remarkable melting of ice in the artic, coral reefs killed by rising ocean temperatures, desertification in Mongolia due to heat waves, and the inland damage cause by torrential rains as well as hurricanes and tornados around the world. It is not unusual for pilots to notice these climatic and environmental changes with their own eyes. Therefore, JAL launched an educational initiative in order to allow pilots to share their firsthand observations concerning the problems that face our planet.

Creative Program with Captains’ First-hand Stories Helps Children Understand the Environment Better
Soraiku Classes - Part of Integrated Study Periods
Shigeki Tateoka, Teacher
Oiso Elementary School, Oiso-cho, Kanagawa
I applied to the program thinking that the children would be excited to meet a uniformed airline captain, and the reaction was even better than I expected. The class included 157 grade-three students, and I was surprised by how much the children learned about the global environment and the ecological activities of the JAL Group. In the essays they wrote afterwards, the children made comments such as “I realized how perfect a place the Earth is for us to live,” and “A jumbo jet produces a lot of CO2, but JAL is using less fuel by making it lighter.” I think the Soraiku program is a good opportunity for children to learn about environmental issues. Soraiku (literally, “sky education”) is an environmental education program that JAL launched in September 2007. The program enables JAL Group captains to visit mainly elementary school children, and tell them about the state of the Earth as seen from the air and the JAL Group’s environmental preservation efforts. The classes were given 11 times during fiscal 2007.

Captain Matsuda is one of the pilots that participate in the Soraiku program. “I was surprised by how intently the children listened to me. The Earth’s atmosphere in which we fly is a vital part of the natural environment. I think it is important to tell children about what we see from aircraft, and consider the future of the planet together with them.”