The Chronicle

Issue date: 10/10/07 Section: News
Last update: 10/10/07 at 9:04 AM EST

Media Credit: MAYA ROBINSON Matt Rumsey, a three-year starter at center, worked this past summer on a report that highlighted what North Carolina cities are doing to fight global warming.

Senior Matt Rumsey is, in his own words, not an environmentalist.

Yet the starting center of the Duke football team spent his summer researching and compiling a report highlighting innovations made by North Carolina cities to combat the effects of global warming.

Rumsey, who participated in the Stanback Internship offered by the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, worked with the North Carolina Sierra Club to release the "Cool Cities Best Practices" report.

"I think [global warming is] an issue that everyone needs to be aware of," Rumsey said. "It's something I felt like I want to be involved in."

Cities participating in the "Cool Cities" initiative are aiming to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to their 1990 levels by 2012, said Tom Jensen, conservation campaign coordinator of the North Carolina Sierra Club.

"The report showcased a lot of good things that the 25 cities in North Carolina are doing," he said.

Jensen added that the Sierra Club feels that the federal government has not been active in helping the environment.

A political science major and two-time Academic All-ACC selection, Rumsey said the job gave him insights into an area to which he otherwise would not have been exposed. It also changed some of his everyday behavior.

"I don't want to come across as a hypocrite-I mean, I drive a truck," Rumsey said. "But it's just little things that you can change [in] your everyday behavior that I find myself doing-instead of throwing something in the trash, you put it in the recycling bin."

He said the internship did not conflict with his role on the gridiron.

"As a member of the football team I wanted to be able to stay here over the summer and train and workout with the team," Rumsey said. "So I was looking for something that would keep me in Durham."

Jensen said Rumsey compiled the information from all the cities for the report.

"Matt called the cities and asked them what they are doing that's really unique," Jensen said.

He added that the Sierra Club is very appreciative of the work Rumsey did.

"It's a really good testimony to the athletic program at Duke," Jensen said. "It's producing athletes that are doing great in the classroom, and I say this as a graduate of [the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill], who hates Duke."

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