Tag Archives: oceania

Panic buying resurgence in Sydney as lockdown looms

Supermarket shelves are being stripped bare across Sydney after a snap week-long lockdown was announced for several inner-city suburbs.

The number of COVID-19 cases in NSW has surged again today with 22 new local cases announced.

The total number of cases linked to the Bondi cluster now sits at 65.

LIVE UPDATES: Sydney's centre, east sent into lockdown

Panic buying Sydney Broadway

From midnight tonight, people who live and work in Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick and the City of Sydney will be subject to a new stay-at-home order.

That will be in place for a week, until next Friday.

Anyone who has been working in the four locked-down local government areas for the past two weeks is now subject to the same stay-at-home order.

EXPLAINED: What's my LGA and am I in lockdown?

People panic buying avocados in Broadway Shopping Centre, Sydney.

People will only be able to leave if they can't work or be educated from home, need to provide care or compassion to a relative, exercise in groups of 10 people or under, or do essential grocery shopping.

The announcement has triggered another wave of panic buying with residents rushing to stock up on popular household items including toilet paper and cooking essentials.

At a Broadway grocery store in the Inner West, avocados were highly sought after, with crates emptying fast after the lockdown announcement.

READ MORE: Hundreds isolating after COVID-19 cases emerge at Melbourne dry cleaner

Panic-buying toilet paper Broadway, Sydney.

Ms Berejiklian explicitly warned against panic buying in the wake of a lockdown.

"You can go out and buy anything you need any time of the day," she said.

"We don't have curfew, we don't have anything like that.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about new lockdown for Sydney COVID-19 hotspots

"Please know that this is in order for us to ensure that this doesn't take a hold for weeks and weeks."

Sweltering temperatures melting permafrost across Siberia

When you think of Siberia, the last thing you might think of is searing heat.

But sweltering temperatures are being recorded all across the immense region of Russia.

Ground temperatures in Verkhojansk, well above the Arctic circle, were recorded at 48C by the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel satellites.

READ MORE: Temperature hits 38 degrees in Arctic town

The sweltering temperatures in Siberia are captured in this satellite image.

While the air temperature in the region was a comparatively mild 30C, the scorching summer there has global ramifications.

Because while the hot ground is an indication of climate change, it has the capacity to make the greenhouse effect far, far worse.

Much of the ground in Siberia is permafrost, earth that remains below zero degrees at all time.

When it gets too warm, it has the potential to release vast quantities of climate change-causing methane into the atmosphere.

READ MORE: Methane discharge 'cracking permafrost' in Arctic

The thawing ground also has the capacity to destabilise buildings and cause landslides.

The sweltering heat also has the potential for more disastrous consequences.

Siberia is home to immense forests or taigas, prone to devastating wildfires.

Such fires have the potential to pump an enormous volume of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The onset of summer suggests there's little chance of Siberia cooling down any time soon.

In this handout photo provided by Olga Burtseva, children play in the Krugloe lake outside Verkhoyansk, the Sakha Republic, about 4660 kilometers (2900 miles) northeast of Moscow, Russia, Sunday, June 21, 2020.

READ MORE: Mystery holes in Siberian tundra could be linked to climate change