Hillary Clinton's first trip as Secretary of State will put the spotlight on global warming. Living on Earth's Washington correspondent Jeff Young reports that there are high hopes for a breakthrough in the long climate stalemate between China and the United States.

As health officials try to guess where the so-called swine flu will show up next, other researchers are trying to track the H1N1 virus to its origins. And a number of experts suspect large-scale factory farms. Host Jeff Young talks with Johns Hopkins Public Health Professor Ellen Silbergeld who says crowded, filthy conditions at factory farms could speed the mutation and transfer of viruses from pigs to people.

The Obama administration has hit the ground running on clean energy, climate change and other environmental matters. Living on Earth reviews the administration's major acts. And we'll hear from the president's top environmental advisor, Nancy Sutley.

As Chrysler reorganizes in bankruptcy, it also seals a partnership with Italian car-maker Fiat. LA Times automotive columnist Dan Neil talks with host Steve Curwood about what the new partnership will mean for greening the Chrysler fleet and what the future may holds for other U.S. auto companies.

New Jersey's top environmental officer, Lisa Jackson, is Barack Obama's nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. And the President-elect promises big changes for the agency. But Washington correspondent Jeff Young reports that some New Jersey environmentalists - including some who worked for Jackson - are highly critical of her record there.

Hilda Solis, Barack Obama’s pick for Labor Secretary, has been a pioneer in getting barrio kids into college to train for green jobs. Living on Earth’s Ingrid Lobet looks at some of the forces that shaped California Congresswoman Hilda Solis.

Pablo Picasso once said creativity is a sum of destructions. Salt Marsh Diary writer Mark Lender observes that nature is a sum of creations and destructions, as exemplified in the American Beaver.

Lisa Jackson has no small job ahead of her. As the new EPA administrator, she's charged with protecting public health and safeguarding the environment. One of her first initiatives is to follow up on a USA Today series that found hundreds of America's schools located dangerously close to toxic hot spots. Administrator Jackson talks with host Bruce Gellerman about testing the air that schoolchildren breathe, regulating carbon dioxide, and what she'd like to do with the EPA's proposed budget increase.

Researchers find naturally occurring laughing gas in clam bellies. But as Liz Gross reports the impact on the climate is not so funny.

Once upon a time, there were wristwatches but their time has come and gone. Cellphones have made watches passé but, as Living on Earth's Bruce Gellerman reports, The Thousand Watch Project hopes to preserve them...for all time.

Barack Obama has selected some of the most accomplished scientists in the United States to lead major departments of the government. Host Steve Curwood talks with Stanford professor Steven Schneider about the newly nominated science advisor, Secretary of Energy, and head of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

In 1990, Nike sneakers mysteriously washed up all along the Pacific Coast. These floating shoes were the beginning of a life’s work for oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer. He has spent the years since then tracking everything from sneakers to rubber ducks that float on the ocean’s surface – and learning the deeper workings of the seas in the process. Ebbesmeyer joins host Jeff Young to talk about his new book, "Flotsametrics and the Floating World."

New Orleans residents have been waiting for the official word on why the levees failed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and have been hoping for assurance that they won’t fail again. What they got was a dense report from the Army Corps of Engineers. Host Steve Curwood asks David Moreau from the National Academies of Science to help make sense of the recent government report. The bottom line: people in flood prone areas will get wet.