The most sublime and awe-inspiring spectacle in the world.
Clarence Dutton

William Jefferson Clinton has been on the fast track all of his life, always running for something. From early on it seemed to be his destiny to journey from Hope, Arkansas to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and ultimately environmental heroism. Perhaps it all began with that famous handshake at the White House, in 1963, with his personal hero, President John F. Kennedy. He was a junior at Hot Springs High School at the time.

The scholarly Clinton's quest would then take him to Georgetown University, where he was class president his first and second years, and then on to Oxford, in England, with a Rhodes Scholarship in hand. He then returned to the U.S. and completed his formal education at Yale Law School. After Yale, Clinton went back to his roots in Arkansas to enter politics. He was elected governor at the spry young age of 32 and served five terms. Twice he was elected chairman of the National Governor's Conference for which he garnered much national attention. In 1992 he defeated the incumbent President George H.W. Bush to fulfill his dream.

Clinton began his presidency with a strong commitment to the environment. He called climate change a strategic global threat which required bold action. In his first Earth Day address he promised to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. This did not happen (and has still not happened as of 2015). Clinton has received harsh criticism within some environmental circles for this failure to achieve, or even come close to, what he called his number one goal as president.