The United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says the 2017 is on track to be one of the three hottest years on record, with 2016 and 2015 filling out the card.

WMO researchers presented their annual State of the Global Climate report to delegates from 200 countries at the opening of the Global Climate Talks going on in Bonn, Germany.  They blame this long-term warming trend on the human activity that causes global warming, particularly the creation of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.  UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa said "the very fabric of life on Earth is under threat" from rising temperatures.

For Australia, this trend will prove to be trouble.  Summers with temperatures in excess of 50 C degrees are coming, and sooner than earlier thought.

"This is really problematic for humans, given that there's an upper limit to what we can physiologically cope with," said Dr. Liz Hanna from the Australian National University as quoted by the ABC.  "When you consider that … there are winter deaths, but the winter deaths are normally respiratory and infections and not exposure to cold, whereas the heat deaths … are due to exposure to the heat and the fact that we cannot cool our bodies."