European Environment Agency says emission levels of all pollutants fell in 2009, in line with decreased demand

Pollution from transport fell across in Europe in 2009 – but may only be temporarily due to the economic downturn, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said on Thursday.

The annual report on transport emissions covers road, rail, boats on inland waterways, and aviation, but not international shipping. "Emissions levels of almost all pollutants from transport fell in 2009, as there was a drop in demand," said EEA executive director, Prof Jacqueline McGlade. "But this fall was due to the economic recession. So now we need to see a more fundamental shift in Europe's transport system, so that emissions do not increase even in times of strong economic growth."

Some efficiency gains have been made, with new cars in 2010 approximately one-fifth more efficient than in 2000. However, these relatively modest gains are often being outpaced by growing demand, even if the recession slowed activity in some areas. Between 1990 and 2009, demand for transport grew by approximately one-third, leading to a 27% increase in greenhouse gas emissions from transport in the same period. In 2009, transport was responsible for 24% of Europe's greenhouse gas emissions. Aviation accounted for just over half of that share, with its emissions having grown 94% since 1990.

In March this year, the European commission outlined its roadmap "towards an efficient transport system". Siim Kallas, ice-president and commissioner responsible for transport, said at the time that it was "… a roadmap for a competitive transport sector that increases mobility and cuts emissions. We can and we must do both."

The roadmap states that EU member states are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 60% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. Since emissions actually increased by 27% between 1990 and 2009, the EU must make an overall 68% reduction between 2009 and 2050.

Air quality objectives were exceeded in many areas. For nitrogen dioxide, which can cause respiratory problems, the annual limit values were exceeded at 41% of traffic monitoring stations in 2009. And the daily limit value for particulate matter (PM10) from transport, which causes serious health problems, was broken at 30% of the traffic sites across Europe. Furthermore, almost 100 million people were exposed to damaging long-term average levels of noise from road vehicles on major roads.

The EEA said that fuel prices were still cheap enough to not to encourage more efficient transport choices. The average real price of road transport fuels was €1.14 per litre in June 2011, in real terms 15% higher than in 1980, an average increase of less than 0.5 percentage points per year in real terms.

The share of alternative fuelled cars on the road has grown steadily, comprising more than 5% of the fleet in 2009. Most of these were using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), while electric vehicles made up 0.02% of the total fleet.

KinderTown is a newly launched app store for parents which offers a curated collection of kid-friendly applications. What makes the store unique is that it only includes apps which have been deemed to have “substantial educational value” for kids three to six years old. In order to evaluate the apps’ quality, each app is first reviewed by early childhood educators, then tested by parents and kids before admission.

At launch, KinderTown’s app store is available as a universal app that works on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. When you launch KinderTown, you can filter the app selections by platform (iPhone, iPad or Universal), recommended ages, subject matter (e.g., math, language, art, science, etc.) and price (free or paid).

Apps that match your search filters appear on screen, and you can tap on them to see descriptions, screenshots and pricing information. A tap on the “get the app” button will then pop you over to the iTunes App Store to start the download.

The KinderTown staff includes two former teachers responsible for the app reviews. Kay Welch specializes in early childhood education and has more than 20 years of experience teaching and writing curriculums for school districts. Carolina Nugent spent five years as a kindergarten teacher and received recognition for her integration of technology and apps in the classroom.

The concept for the KinderTown itself comes from serial entrepreneur and DreamIt Ventures co-founder Steve Welch. Steve previously founded Mitos, a global company in the biotech-manufacturing field, which was later sold to a Fortune 500 company. He says that the idea for KinderTown emerged from his own frustration in finding good educational apps for his own 4-year old daughter.

As a geek parent myself, I know that feeling. Although my child is only now pushing two, she’s already madly addicted to the iPhone and iPad, shouting “monkey!” (thank you, Monkey Preschool Lunchbox) every time she sees either device. In a home filled with many beloved gadgets, it’s only a matter of time before she’s completely sucked into the iOS gaming world.

But with an App Store that now boasts over half a million applications, it’s beyond challenging to find appropriate, functional, and hopefully not entirely brain-rotting apps these days.

Although Apple could one day upgrade its own “Genius” offering to allow for more granular filtering and searching, that day hasn’t yet arrived, allowing KinderTown to step in and serve this need. For now, the app will support itself through the App Store affiliate program, but it may offer premium subscriptions for additional learning products in the future.

Self-funded KinderTown is now available as a free download here on iTunes.

Earlier this week, Amazon announced that official apps from Facebook, Netflix, Rhapsody and Zynga will be ready to download and use on the Kindle Fire, direct from the Amazon Appstore.

Slated for release on Nov. 15, demand for the $199 Kindle Fire is already strong, with many analysts predicting that it will be one of the big hits this holiday season.

Because of its price point and strong content strategy, the Kindle Fire might be the first tablet that has what it takes to compete with the iPad. In addition to third-party Android apps, Amazon is offering its own customized Kindle reading experience, access to Amazon Cloud Player and streaming access to thousands of TV shows and movies for Amazon Prime members. Now that it has Hulu Plus support, the Kindle Fire becomes one of the most versatile media consumption devices around.

Barnes & Noble announced its own media tablet, the Nook Tablet, earlier this week. The Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire share many similarities, but Amazon may have the edge in the content partnerships it can sign.

Make no mistake, the battle over next-generation tablet is as much about content as it is about specs and price.

Does Hulu Plus support make the Kindle Fire more appealing? Let us know.

BONUS: A Look at the Kindle Fire

Click here to view this gallery.

If winter’s approach finds you yearning for warmer climes, Apple’s got you covered no matter which tropical locale you’ve got your eye on. As promised way back when, Apple has begun to sell unlocked versions of all iPhone 4S models in their online store.

Here’s hoping you managed to get a good deal on that plane ticket, because Apple’s globetrotting 4S comes with some hefty price tags. As expected, the base level 16GB iPhone 4S will run customers $649, while the 32 and 64GB variants will cost $749 and $849 respectively.

The unlocked iPhone 4S will take a microSIM (even handmade ones) from any GSM provider the world over, but Apple makes it crystal clear that CDMA roaming is off-limits. It’s not a huge stumbling block considering most the of world runs on GSM, but it definitely puts a damper on anyone’s plans to try and use one of these things on Verizon or Sprint. Then again, if anyone wanted to do that, they would be better off buying from the carrier directly and politely asking them for an unlock after the initial 60 day period is up.

Really, there’s very little reason for anyone to pick one of these things up, unless you’re a frequent flier or have an acute fear of signing contracts. In either case, I wish you godspeed and good luck with your new iPhone.

Twitter's new "activity" feature is not just voyeurism. It's a double-edged sword to journalists who can't opt out and worse, it's a missed opportunity

Twitter rolled out a new feature this past week which allows users to see the minutia of activity that revolves around you and the people you follow. On top of the existing feature that keeps track of every time you've been mentioned by others, it now will keep you up to date on what tweets your friends are favoriting and who they're following. Sounds a lot like Facebook, where these bits of information are broadcasted on your Facebook Wall. Difference here is, Facebook will let you mute the people who are a little "too active" but in the case of Twitter, no such filter is available yet.

In my case, I don't really care about this kind of information. Sure it might be slightly interesting from a voyueristic standpoint, and for some journalists, it can be a double edged sword. This week for example, on your profile page you might have seen which former News of the World journalist a media editor had begun following the day before James Murdoch's testimony to the UK parliament and simultaneously note which member of your erudite timeline had favourited a tweet linking to an article about the causes of overeating and how to stop them.

In one sense it's more digital footprint available for vetting and gathering information about sources, yet in the same way, it can make it easier for you to broadcast who your sources are based on your own activity. What I would have much rather seen Twitter do is harness the vast amount of information they have about what's going on anywhere right now through Twitter Lists. If you don't know what a Twitter List is, you're not alone.

A Read Write Web article pointed out recently that the feature are sorely underutilized, not only by most mainstream consumers of Twitter, but by Twitter itself. You might be shocked to hear that Twitter's own employees are not necessarily their biggest power users. Power users being outliers, and not representative of most users of Twitter, are possibly not worth building a product around. However, there is one great value in these type of users: they're the main producers of the most valuable content on Twitter.

Power users create and maintain high value Twitter Lists, then manicure them and take great care in ensuring they're up to date. A Twitter List is simply a list of users on Twitter that mainly stick to one topic and are often either subject matter experts or in the case of say, the uprising in Egypt or Libya, sources directly on the ground providing updates about what's happening at any given time. Companies such as Storyful have built an entire business on the proper maintenance of these Lists. Instead of providing us with yet another self-referential stream of information, why not provide a window into any subject available through these well curated Lists?

Imagine having a direct news wire plugged into any given country or a stream of breaking tech or political news? Track a fast moving story with finely focused first hand reports. Twitter would finally have a way to show the power of Lists to a wider audience and the bigger audience would allow us to see which Lists are trending, possibly making it easier to tap into a stream as it begins to gain greater relevance. It also serves as an educational tool, for those who don't "get" Twitter to see what kind of actionable, high value information actually exists on the network.

Now that's the kind of activity I could get excited about.

Ant de Rosa is the social media editor of Reuters.