Yesterday was a scorcher. The thermometer outside our kitchen window registered 38ºC. You could almost hear the lawn sizzle as it turned, with frightening speed, from green to gold.

Of course, that got me thinking about the state of the world, why lawns aren’t always green, and whether I can still rock tank tops. But it’s climate change that I’m still grappling with. I wanted a simple, easy to understand explanation of what’s going on.

Well, U.K.-based science journalist and climate blogger Andy Extance offers just that. He got readers of his blog, Simple Climate, to vote on what they thought was the simplest, clearest explanation on climate change from choices offered by a variety of scientists.

The winning explanation, by Kevin Trenberth, one of the world’s leading climate researchers, is succinct and to the point without any dumbing down. Now I get it. And, thanks to Mr. Extance, I’m learning more about what can be done about it.