In this chapter, we critically analyse how the pandemic caused prior assumptions across both spatial and temporal boundaries to become questioned and reflect on important similarities, differences and relationships with more long-standing environmental concerns. Among the many, deep, social effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had around the world, one that holds perhaps the greatest promise for lasting positive change—but which might also prove the most ephemeral—is that it has forced humans to re-evaluate their relationship to the environment and reconsider some deeply institutionalized social practices. The temporal character of the risk posed by both the pandemic and environmental crises, as well as the ways in which global and national risks are framed and perceived, has had an important impact on the nature and range of solutions offered. While the emphasis within the pandemic has been to ‘return to normal’ through a series of technical fixes—lockdowns, social measures, vaccines—these options are insufficient for the threats posed by environmental breakdown. In both cases, however, there has been a tendency among experts and policymakers to focus on the symptoms of the crises rather than their underlying causes. Transformative change necessitates a process of learning from crises; it entails a better understanding of what is knowable and unknowable and an appreciation of how crises are increasingly interrelated.