Global emissions of ethane, an air pollutant and greenhouse gas, are on the uptick again. A team led by ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder found that a steady decline of global ethane emissions following a peak in about 1970 ended between 2005 and 2010 in most of the Northern Hemisphere and has since reversed. Between 2009 and 2014, ethane emissions in the Northern Hemisphere increased by about 400,000 tons annually, the bulk of it from North American oil and gas activity.