We live in an era known as ‘The Anthropocene’, marked by the twin phenomena of globalisation and climate change. These two forces have been fuelled by the increase in speed of transportation, communication, and production technologies, mostly due to fossil fuels. In this ‘fossil-fuelled’ era, a chronological time has been imposed upon the entire face of the planet, and all bodies within the planet are forced into this chronological time. This essay argues that during the Covid pandemic, many of us (western types especially) began to see glimpses of the different times of the planet. The times of rivers, trees, bees, and baking; the time of justice and the time of healing do not map on to chronological time. Perhaps through what Whitney calls a “critical planetary romanticism” or CPR for the Earth, we might begin to reattune to our connections with the rest of the bodies that make up the planetary community.
