Milton Keynes children write letters to the earth, inspired by magnificent 7 metre sculpture

A seven metre diameter sculpture of the earth at the centre:mk has proved an inspiration to local schoolchildren.

Luke Jerram’s ‘Gaia’ installation in Middleton Hall was part of the IF: Milton Keynes International Festival.

As the festival draws to a close, the organisers have shown how the giant model impacted the young people of Milton Keynes and their views on global warming.

As part of a Letters to the Earth project, visitors were asked what they would write to the Earth if given the opportunity. The result was a host of handwritten notes.

Karina, aged 11, wrote: “There’s only one world so save it! There’s no planet B", while another youngster penned: "Sorry, we treat you like rubbish."

A spokesman for the IF festival said: "The profound accounts of the young people of Milton Keynes shows a dramatic desire to make long lasting environmental change.

The same artist was also responsible for another highly popular feature of the festival - a matching 7m model of the moon in the Tree Cathedral at Newlands.

Called Museum of the Moon, it features 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. At an approximate scale of 1:500,000, each centimetre of the internally lit spherical sculpture represents 5km of the Moon’s surface.