Located in western Massachusetts, UMass Amherst is the flagship campus of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' five-campus University of Massachusetts system. UMass Amherst is a nationally recognized teaching and research institution with a current enrollment of about 28,500 students.

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The Paris Climate Agreement and future sea-level rise from Antarctica

One of the world's leading experts on modeling polar ice sheets, sea-level rise and ocean response to climate change, He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a selected lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

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.

Ice Sheets and Sea Level

Antarctica

Glaciology

Climatology

Earth System Modeling

Sea Level Rise

Greenland

Ice Sheets

UMass Amherst Faculty Profile

Research Website

Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center Profile

ice berg

Scientists warn that a key Atlantic current could collapse, among other climate tipping points

antarctic ice

‘Worst-Case’ Disaster for Antarctic Ice Looks Less Likely, Study Finds

sea level rise

As sea level rise accelerates, Boston is ‘deep into overtime’ to build coastal protections by 2030

Antarctica is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth. Are tourists making it worse?

Octopus DNA seems to confirm scientists’ theory about a long-standing geological mystery

glacier

2 degrees, 40 feet: Scientists who study Earth’s ice say we could be committed to disastrous sea level rise

rob deconto

Dire Report On Climate Change Released

rob deconto being interviewed

Eye-opening NOAA report on rising sea levels 'a global wake-up call'

Emissions Cuts Could Drop the Impact of Melting Ice on Oceans by Half

Antarctica's ice sheet is critical to the fate of coastal cities. How much it will melt remains a big question

melting ice sheet

Provost Professor of and Earth, Geographic and Climate Sciences and Director of the School of Earth and Sustainability

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the leading global body on climate science. On September 25, it released its first-ever Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. More than 100 scientists from 80 countries assessed the latest scientific knowledge about how climate change is impacting the ocean, coastal, polar, and mountain ecosystems, and the communities that depend on them.

Rob DeConto Report on Climate Change

Report on Climate Change (DeConto begins at 32:00)

Dedicated to all things on Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Report (https://www.antarcticreport.com) is an online portal published by Camino, a digital content and publishing company based in Auckland, New Zealand. The site showcases the hard science which underlines the importance of Antarctica as a bellwether of global climate change. It also highlights the continent's unique political status, as well as the exceptional demands its environment places on people and equipment, and the romantic allure for travellers and explorers as the least discovered continent on the planet.

The Antarctic Report was born out of the highly successful World Science Week, which brought together more than 2,000 of the world’s leading scientists, researchers and government science advisors for a series of international science summits in Auckland during August and September 2014. These major global gatherings included the 31st triennial General Assembly of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the 6th biennial Open Science Conference of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). 

Many of the scientists took part in a series of public lectures sponsored by the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, with the support of both the University of Auckland and AUT University where the presentations were held.  

Prof Rob DeConto is Professor of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, USA. His background spans geology, oceanography, and atmospheric science. He has held research positions at both the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). His early research used numerical climate models to better understand the mechanisms responsible for past periods of extreme global warmth. In recent years, his research has shifted toward the polar regions – including fieldwork in Antarctica, the development of coupled climate-ice sheet models, and the application of those models to a wide range of past and future climate scenarios. DeConto currently serves on a number of national and international science boards and advisory panels and he is currently co-chair of ACE (Antarctic Climate Evolution), an international research programme under the auspices of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research

During his presentation, DeConto explains his research using physical and numerical models of ice sheet movement in Greenland and Antarctica to simulate the modern system and to test those models relative to future scenarios of Greenhouse gas increases.

'Melting Ice, Rising Seas' was a presentation by five of the world's leading experts on the current state of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and surrounding Southern Ocean, how climate change is impacting upon them, and the consequences for Planet Earth as the 21st century progresses. (The video recording of the seminar is presented here in four separate parts) 

Speakers: 
Bryan Storey, Vice President of SCAR, and Professor of Antarctic Studies at University of Canterbury, NZ (Convenor)
Jonathan Bamber, Professor of Physical Geography, University of Bristol, UK
Tim Naish, Director of Victoria University of Wellington’s Antarctic Research Centre, NZ
Rob DeConto, Professor of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, USA
Steve Rintoul, Research Team Leader, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia

Melting Ice, Rising Seas (Part Four) - Prof Rob DeConto, University of Massachusetts

Rob DeConto PhD: Sea Level Rise from Antarctic Cliff Failure

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