Except for the US-Iran conflict, no other current news is arguably more riveting than the bushfires that have been ravaging Australia since September last year.
Entire towns have since been engulfed in flames with many lives lost. Thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged, and more than 100,000 people have been evacuated.
According to news reports, more than 8.4 million hectares of forestland have been burned across Australia's six states -- an area nearly half the size of Cambodia.
Images of sky turned yellow-orange or red have given rise to an eerie sense of doom, and those of charred animals bring tears to the eyes.
The economic damage is expected to exceed US$4.4 billion. But most devastatingly, some ecology scientists believe up to a billion animals may have perished.
The raging wildfires are, without a doubt, the most horrendous natural disaster to have struck Australia. The magnitude of the damage is even greater than the California fires and the months-long blazes that consumed a large swath of the Amazon rain forest last year.
Scientists have attributed the cause of the fire to the severe drought in the spring and hot, dry weather in the summer this year -- a phenomenon largely the result of climate change.
Public opinion surveys have found that climate change is rapidly becoming a major concern for Australians. Most Australian voters also believe that the country is not doing enough to combat the problem.
These poll findings do not bode well for Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is adamant about promoting the coal industry.
The largest group of respondents who view climate change as the biggest problem facing Australia are, perhaps not surprisingly, those in the 18-24 age group.
Since Greta Thunberg, then 15 years old, started to skip school on Fridays, we have seen a spike in awareness of the issue among young people across the globe.
They have now realised that it is their future that is at stake, and it is their fathers' and grandfathers' generations that are leaving them a world in tatters.
And in a strange twist, many of the older generations are seeing this heightened awareness as a threat to their way of life. Some of them have resorted to verbally attacking young activists for calling upon the adults to take serious action against climate change.
The most famous instance was when US President Donald Trump chided Thunberg in a tweet. "Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend!" Mr Trump wrote. "Chill Greta, Chill!"
Many fellow climate change sceptics and deniers have used even more crass comments against the young activist. Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro called Thunberg "a brat" after she called attention to the murder of indigenous people who try to protect the Amazon from deforestation.
But some old people have better sense than others. In her annual Christmas message, 93-year-old Queen Elizabeth II of England praised young people for taking action on the climate crisis.
"The challenges many people face today may be different to those once faced by my generation. But I have been struck by how new generations have brought a similar sense of purpose to issues such as protecting our environment, and our climate," she said.
Science, more than ever, confirms what young people have feared. In early November last year, more than 11,000 of the world's scientists signed a statement declaring that planet Earth is now facing a "climate emergency".
There is no time to lose, the scientists say: "The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity."
Yet, in another sign that the world's governments have not heeded the scientists' words, world leaders at the 2019 UN Climate Change Conference in December failed to come up with significant measures to fight off the advance of climate catastrophe.
But while we in Thailand join the world community to pray for Australia, our country is also facing one of the worst dry seasons on record.
For most people in Bangkok, it's the first time our drinking water has tasted brackish, not to mention farmland throughout much of the country turning brown from thirst.
This is happening despite Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha declaring in 2018 that the 20-year national strategic plan had put in place measures to ensure that Thailand will not face drought again.
It turns out that his words were just wishful thinking, which is not surprising considering that government planning all too often takes a top-down approach with little input from people actually on the ground. Even worse, plans can change on the whim of whoever is in power.
Gen Prayut is particularly adept at spewing words without knowing their meaning, particularly on matters concerning the environment. But then again, the environment has never been on this regime's priority list.
But the indifference and ignorance of the current crop of policymakers toward climate change and other environmental issues will surely bring about even more disastrous weather events in this country.
With the world virtually on fire, it is not superfluous to say the lack of serious and timely action will only result in irreparable catastrophe.