I can’t stop thinking about an idiotic applause line that Mitt Romney threw at the Republican faithful as he accepted his party’s presidential nomination in Tampa.

He chided President Obama for pledging to stem rising ocean tides and while saving the planet; then he said his first priority would be to help “American families.” The Tampa crowd roared its approval.

I’m with those who wonder how the threat of global climate change became a political punch line.

I also am among those who believe the climate is changing. I’m open to discuss the reasons for the change: manmade or a natural geological cycle that occurs every few millennia. There can be no dispute, though, over the fact that the ice caps are melting, the worldwide mean temperatures are rising, ocean levels are rising too, storm systems are becoming deadlier and more violent, and many species of God’s creatures are becoming threatened by all of it.

And let me include human beings in that final example.

Yes, that also includes American families.

Is it really and truly prudent to ignore these trends? I think not. Scientists who are a lot smarter than I am – or even smarter than Mitt Romney – keep telling us that we’re approaching the point of no return. Indeed, there may be nothing humankind can do to reverse these warming trends if you subscribe to the notion that the climate change is part of some evolutionary cycle.

But from where I sit, I consider these threats every bit as real as the persistent economic threats that endanger Americans’ way of life.

There’s nothing funny about them.