Leaders from across the world – including the UK, US, Germany and Japan, just to name a few – have travelled to St Ives, Cornwall to take part in the G7 Summit, discussing a wide range of topical issues. With an event of this size, it is unsurprising that it has caused chaos across the county, and I have been able to witness it first-hand.
I am currently a student studying at the University of Exeter’s campus in Penryn, a mere two miles from the coastal town of Falmouth. The reason that location may sound familiar is because the media have stormed our serene little town and set up camp on Events Square, by the iconic Maritime Museum. Many of the news reports you will see over the G7 weekend will come from Falmouth. However, what they don’t show is the havoc they have caused residents across the region.
From May 27th, major car parks across Falmouth have closed in preparation, police have begun to flood our streets and many hospitality businesses have had to close their doors to the wider public; only able to serve the abundance of media that have arrived. The streets are busier, filled with journalists from many cultures, thousands of police officers and locals wanting to see the action.
Wherever you walk in Falmouth, you will pass journalists and delegates, blocked off roads, and artistic displays of protest. It feels incredibly surreal knowing that I am so close to journalists that I look up to, and people who have the power to make a difference, whether they choose to use it or not.
“System change not climate change”
Climate Change Protests
However, the disruption has been intensified by numerous protests taking place in towns across Cornwall. The biggest, to no surprise, taking place in St Ives, but others taking place in Newquay and of course Falmouth, where the media are ready to report. Thus far, each protest has been clearly focused on environmental issues, being led by groups such as Extinction Rebellion.
On Friday 11 June, I attended the protest led by Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future in Falmouth, taking photos for my university’s newspaper. The group initially formed at Gyllyngvase Beach before walking through the streets of Falmouth, blocking roads for delivery vans and buses, whilst shouting “What do we want? Climate justice. When do we want it? Now!” and “System change not climate change”, among many other carefully curated chants. They eventually ended up outside the media centre, making their point loud and clear to international journalists, who came out to hear what they had to say, whilst they chanted “The media is not our friend.”
Along the route to the media centre, the group passed an artistic display on a lawn, featuring mock graves and a grim reaper. Showing what we have lost already and what is at stake in this battle against climate change. This is not the only display to have gone up in the coastal town, with inflatable figures of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and US President Joe Biden, floating by the beach on Friday morning. Other notable displays include ‘Mount Recyclemore’, an installation in Hayle, depicting the leaders attending the G7 made out of waste electrical products.
With further protests planned over the weekend, there will definitely be further disruption on the typically quiet Cornish roads. It seems it could take a while for the message to sink in, especially for Boris Johnson, who flew on a private jet from London to Cornwall whilst claiming he plans to “build back better, fairer and greener.”
Y7 Summit
Alongside the G7, a ‘Y7 Summit’ (Youth 7) event is taking place at the Penryn Campus. The event brings together young representatives in order to increase youth engagement with politics and important global issues, meaning that the campus will be incredibly hectic, with many students still living in on-site accommodation affected.
Needless to say, the past few weeks have been crazy and surreal. With more frequent checks at train stations, seeing journalists from across the world, and even spotting myself in a Sky News report. I can definitely say that this time in Cornwall will be one of the most memorable of my three years studying here. However, I am looking forward to it all being over and our seaside town returning to its peaceful state. It is the reason that I moved here after all!
Lauren Taylor
Images throughout the article were supplied by the author, Lauren Taylor. No changes or alterations were made to these images.
Featured image courtesy of Sebastiano Piazzi via Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license can be found here.