Harmony with Our Changing Planet — Gail Whiteman
Social scientist Gail Whiteman unpacks creative resilience in the face of planetary change in this free pre-concert talk at Royal Festival Hall.
Why we picked this
Whiteman's work sits at the intersection of social science and planetary systems, which means she asks different questions than climate scientists — specifically about how human institutions and cultures adapt, or fail to. That angle is worth an hour of anyone's time.
Gail Whiteman leads the Nature and Climate Impact Team at the University of Exeter, working at the boundary between social science and Earth systems research. Her focus is not just on what is happening to the planet but on how human communities, institutions, and cultures respond — and where the capacity for genuine creative resilience comes from.
The talk takes planetary change as its starting point and moves toward adaptation: what it actually looks like when individuals and societies find ways to navigate large-scale disruption. Whiteman’s framing draws on both scientific data and social dynamics, making this a different kind of climate conversation than those centered on modeling or policy alone.
This is a free pre-concert talk, part of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s ongoing Harmony with Nature season. The season pairs ecological thinkers with orchestral programming — in this case, the talk precedes an LPO concert. No ticket required; arrive early to secure a seat.