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So, you've failed in your bid for presidency--what do you do next? Become a crusader for the environment, of course. Oh, wait. Did you think I meant Al Gore? If so, you'd be inconveniently wrong. I'm talking about the most recent Democratic presidental nominee, John Kerry.

John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry collaborated on This Moment on Earth, which is equal parts inspiration, instruction, and history lesson.

Here's a green nugget from the book where John Kerry relates his perspective about the issue of clean lakes and rivers in America:

"The threats to our waters are nothing new; this is news we began hearing decades ago. But we have not heeded it. In the late 1960s, just as I was returning from service in Vietnam, the health of the nation's inland waters had reached a critical low. I'll never forget picking up the newspaper one day in June 1969 and seeing the stark photographs of Cleveland's Cuyahoga River on fire. The flames reached five stories high, and a large plume of black, dirty smoke wrapped the sky in darkness. In shock and disbelief, I—like many other Americans—learned that the river was so polluted that it had literally caught on fire. It was later reported that the fire had started from a spark that had landed on oil and debris floating on the waters of the Cuyahoga from a railcar crossing above it. Two years later, the problem persisted. In 1971, I traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, and as I approached the Cuyahoga, which snakes through the city before emptying into Lake Eerie, I could see the river smoldering. The oil and debris littering the river water remained, and the river still periodically lit up. It was an unnatural as it was unbelievable.

The images of the Cuyahoga River fire quickly became a symbol of the growing crisis of urban pollution. I couldn't help but wonder: How had it come to this?"

Want to learn more about Eco-Politics?

Check Out Obama’s Global Warming Plan

See What McCain Will Do About Climate Change

Hillary Clinton on the Environment

New Report: Doubts Grow About Global Warming

Top 10 Signs You’re Not Running a Green Campaign

Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall… Who’s the Greenest President of Them All?