COVID- gives a fresh urgency to research
trajectories around climate and environment in historical
research. We use examples from African, Japanese, and
medieval European environmental history to chart new ways
to mobilise collaborative research into the planetary past in
academic and public discussions. Our main points are, first,
that COVID- has underlined the entanglements between
human and planetary life, which historians must better
account for. Secondly, it is pertinent to decentre knowledge
production. COVID- and climate crisis are both global
phenomena. Yet patterns of knowledge production that
propose ‘universal’ frameworks and solutions obscure highly
unequal power relations. We call for more plural histories –
in time, space, and species – to confront the complex crises
of our times.
