"The Facts Change and People Change Their Minds"

COP26 in Glasgow, is thought to be a last chance to orchestrate an effective world response to the climate crisis. The UK's PM will be a major player. He was a former journalist in the right wing media. Unsurprisingly to most, some of his earlier writings have now been revealed as distinctly climate change-denying. These earlier tweets/quotes don't sit happily with his recently-professed concern for environmental issues. "The facts change and people change their minds" is his defence of this apparent inconsistency (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/20/johnson-defends-new-trade-secretary-after-climate-crisis-denial-tweets). Clearly, people can change their minds. That is to be applauded. The facts, however, don't change too much. The amount of accummulated evidence can increase but it has been pointing in the same direction for decades. His heroine, Margaret Thatcher (a former Chemist by training) was only too aware of the potential dangers of 'greenhouse gases'. I don't think it was uppermost in her mind, when she took on the coal miners. The current PM has always had a tendency to be highly opportunistic in his statements. He appears to say things he hopes will appeal to his current audience/readership. In the past, the petrochemical companies were able to use their financial power to push the climate change-denial agenda. What has really changed is that there is now wide public concern about the climate crisis. It is to be hoped that COP26 isn't wholly populated by opportunists with flexible concepts of the truth. The UK PM isn't part of what can be regarded as a reliable team.