Robert M. DeConto
Provost Professor of and Earth, Geographic and Climate Sciences and Director of the School of Earth and Sustainability University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Amherst MA
Rob DeConto is one of the world's leading experts on modeling polar ice sheets, sea level rise and ocean response to climate change.
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Expertise
Biography
Rob DeConto has been sought after by publications including National Geographic, the BBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post for commentary on the effect of climate change on the Earth. He also has a particular expertise in what sea level rise will mean for the New England coast, and how coastal cities can prepare.
He serves on a number of national and international science boards and he is a recipient of the Tinker-Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica.
Social Media
Video
Education
University of Colorado
Ph.D.
Links
Select Recent Media Coverage
Scientists warn that a key Atlantic current could collapse, among other climate tipping points
NBC News tv
2024-11-12
Robert DeConto is among the scientists who contributed to the International Climate Crisis Initiative’s State of the Cryosphere 2024 report released today to coincide with the COP29 climate conference being held in Baku. The report warns of “vastly higher impacts and costs to the global economy given accelerating losses in the world’s snow and ice regions.”
‘Worst-Case’ Disaster for Antarctic Ice Looks Less Likely, Study Finds
The New York Times online
2024-08-21
Rob DeConto says new research finding that the worst-case scenario for West Antarctica’s massive ice sheet rapidly breaking apart appears less likely than previously thought. He says the research, which he was not involved in, is useful but unlikely to be the last word on the matter, and that scientists need to keep finding ways to ground their models in real-world observations.
As sea level rise accelerates, Boston is ‘deep into overtime’ to build coastal protections by 2030
The Boston Globe print
2024-05-03
Rob DeConto comments in an article reporting that while sea level rise in Boston broke records in 2023, the city’s climate resilience plan is lagging. DeConto says that Boston is likely to have a waterline 5 to 11 inches higher by the end of the decade than in 2000, regardless of what’s done to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and is likely locked into about one foot of sea level rise by the middle of the century.
Antarctica is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth. Are tourists making it worse?
The Boston Globe print
2024-01-05
Robert DeConto, director of the School of Earth & Sustainability, comments on how tourism is making climate change in Antarctica worse. “I can see the allure,” he says. “You’ve got this really stunning physical environment and amazing ecosystem before your eyes. But the environment and the wildlife down there are so fragile that it’s sensitive to any sort of disruption by human travel. This is a place that is intended to remain pristine.”
Octopus DNA seems to confirm scientists’ theory about a long-standing geological mystery
CNN online
2023-12-21
Robert M. DeConto , has co-authored a perspective commentary on a new study that used octopus DNA to identify when the rapidly melting West Antarctic ice sheet last collapsed. DeConto, who was not involved in the study, writes that the work “posed some intriguing questions, including whether this history will be repeated, given Earth’s current temperature trajectory.
2 degrees, 40 feet: Scientists who study Earth’s ice say we could be committed to disastrous sea level rise
NBC News tv
2023-11-16
Rob DeConto discusses a new report by an international initiative they are members of that finds ice sheets are melting faster than expected. “We might be reaching these temperature thresholds that we’ve been talking about for a long time sooner than we were thinking about years ago,” he says, warning that we could be facing sea-level rise outside the range of adaptability.
Dire Report On Climate Change Released
NECN tv
2023-03-23
A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is painting a bleak picture of the future, if we don’t do something now to reduce our carbon emissions. Natalie spoke with one of the authors of the report, Robert DeConto.
Eye-opening NOAA report on rising sea levels 'a global wake-up call'
WCVB-TV tv
2022-02-19
Rob Deconto, geosciences, is interviewed extensively in a story on the recent NOAA report on rising sea levels that serve as a global wake-up call. “Beyond 2050, we need to be able to adapt to the potential for much, much higher sea levels,” Deconto says. “So whatever planning we do, infrastructure that we build, it needs to be adaptable with the consideration that the sea level could be very, very high.”
Emissions Cuts Could Drop the Impact of Melting Ice on Oceans by Half
The New York Times print
2021-05-05
This New York Times article is part of worldwide coverage of new research led by UMass Amherst's Rob DeConto finding that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius could reduce sea level rise from melting glaciers and the vast Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets from about 10 inches to about five by 2100.
Antarctica's ice sheet is critical to the fate of coastal cities. How much it will melt remains a big question
CNN tv
2021-05-05
Rob DeConto, a climate scientist and glaciologist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst is lead author of a new study showing that a tipping point for Antarctica's ice sheet likely exists somewhere in between 2 and 3 degrees Celsius of warming, but exactly where is difficult to pinpoint.
"We don't know exactly where it is," Deconto said. "I'd like to hope that we're wrong and it's somewhere well above 3 degrees (Celsius)."
Emissions Cuts Could Drop the Impact of Melting Ice on Oceans by Half
The New York Times print
2021-05-05
A new study led by Rob DeConto looked at Antarctica ice found that overshooting targets and reaching 3 degrees Celsius of warming — which the world is roughly on track to do, given current pledges to cut emissions — could trigger an abrupt increase in the rate of melting around 2060, and drive a rate at the end of the century that would be 10 times faster than today.
Select Publications
The Paris Climate Agreement and future sea-level rise from Antarctica
NatureRobert M. DeConto et al
2021-05-05
Professor DeConto describes new research he led that showed the world is on track to exceed three degrees Celsius of global warming, a scenario that would drastically accelerate the pace of sea-level rise by 2100.
