The Australia Bureau of Meteorology has released a new heat map showing Australia's expected temperature forecast for November-January. In news that is sure to confound climate change sceptics, we are about to endure one of the hottest summers on record. Again.

Unless humans transform the economy in such a way that has “no documented historic precedent”, the earth will experience “worsening food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040,” according to a report published Monday by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

And with a government hostile to any sort of climate change initiative, individuals are wondering what they can possibly do to help the planet.

Climate change used to seem like something that would confront our grandchildren — a distant concern. Now, though, it’s staring us right in the face when we get up in the morning.

The world is warming. There’s no longer any doubt of that. With a new report breaking down exactly how screwed we are, it’s time to back up and talk about the basics of the situation we’re in.

We’re so used to using computers and phones that they feel like an extension of our brains — it isn’t just me, right? A Google query comes back as fast as a thought, and the information at my fingertips feels intangible like the information in my brain.

Even if you regularly eschew meat-eating and take public transportation, all your efforts at reducing your carbon footprint can be easily outweighed by indulging in one of the other biggest individual contributions to climate change: Flying. Most advice on lowering your carbon footprint notes that flying is bad, and stops there. But The New York Times has some more specific guidelines on how to pick and choose your air travel.

Is there anything more frustrating than a climate change denier? How do you even engage in conversations where the arguments are circular, based on untested anecdotal "internet research" and there's no chance of them even considering the perspective of the people who have committed their lives to researching the very topic they claim to be an armchair expert in?

*deep breath*

Thankfully, a team of International and Australian researchers have the answer.

There exists a theory that, long ago, the entire surface of the Earth was completely frozen.

Yes, there is a possibility that Planet Earth once looked like a giant snowball, drifting through the cosmos.

Heatwaves in Australia are getting hotter, longer, more frequent - and have led to increased ambulance calls, emergency visits, illnesses, and deaths.

It might only be Spring, but experts are already speaking out.

The Earth is getting warmer. That's a fact. And as the Earth gets warmer, we expect to see larger and stronger hurricanes. Also a fact. But there are folks denying these facts, even to the point of blaming the liberal media for the fact that hurricanes are in the news.

There is about a tonne of plastic for each person living in the world today -- that's 8300 million tonnes of plastic produced since 1950, most of which has become waste and ended up in landfills. Even worse, plastic production is increasing and half of all the plastic on Earth was created in the past 13 years. But you can reduce your own impact by cutting back your plastic consumption. Here are eight steps you could take.

There's no doubt that if we're going to stop or even slow down climate change, we have to get our collective crap together. But collective action starts with individual choices, and for all the data-driven decision makers out there, the path forward just got a bit more lucid. A new study in Environmental Research Letters has determined exactly which life choices reduce our carbon footprints the most.

Environmental issues often feel too massive for a single person to make any sort of difference -- and that's partially true. It will take a lot more than recycling. Still, there are plenty of small, realistic things you can change in your own life to do your part while the rest of the world catches up.

Climate change is definitely happening, but it's doing more than warming up the planet -- it's also affecting our well-being. A new report from the American Psychological Association explains how climate change is gradually taking a toll on our mental health.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for so-called climate deniers to maintain weather patterns aren't changing significantly to the detriment of the world. In 2016, extreme weather events flew thick and fast, with records being broken for heat temperatures and low sea ice extents. This infographic looks at some of the key extreme weather events of 2016 and the extent to which climate change can be blamed.

Brief news items of note for Lifehacker readers, including: How to evolve Pokemon in Sun and Moon, MacBook Pro 2016 review, Australian senate debates global warming.