History Main / AtmosphereAbuse

* ''Series/QuatermassII'' had a chemical plant run by humans under alien control, which was manufacturing gases in which the aliens could live. They were horribly corrosive to human flesh, and IIRC the plan was ultimately for the aliens to manufacture enough to replace the Earth's atmosphere.

* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow''. If Dr. Totenkopf's space ship reaches 100 kilometers above ground and its booster engines ignite, the Earth's atmosphere will be destroyed. Of course, [[YouFailPhysicsForever atmosphere doesn't work this way]]: this is a ShoutOut to how PulpMagazine ScienceFiction the movie is homage to often introduced the most ridiculous plot devices imaginable.

[[folder:{{Anime & Manga}}]]

* In a non-canon Futurama Xmas episode, pine trees rapidly propagate across Earth's surface, drastically increasing the atmospheric oxygen levels to 100%. Then Bender lights a cigar, cue worldwide fiery death.

* During the three-part Supergirl story in the 1980s ComicBook/PostCrisis ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comic books, the Phantom Zone villains of the Pocket Universe decide that humanity is too bothersome to deal with once they build up a sizeable LaResistance force that could equal the villains' power. Thus the rogue Kryptonians put their plan in motion [[FinalSolution to kill everybody on Earth]] by burrowing through the planet at super-speed to its core, unleashing massive hot gases that ripped away the Earth's atmosphere and left it a lifeless husk except for the people within Lex Luthor's citadel in Smallville.

* Mack Reynolds' novel ''Dawnman Planet''. A race of aliens has the power to instantly convert the oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere of a planet to methane-hydrogen-ammonia, killing all of the inhabitants.

''[{{Beat}}]]''\\

-->'''Ax''': If the Yeerks wished to kill a lot of humans they could simply use their [[WaveMotionGun Dracon beams]] from orbit to ignite the atmosphere and incinerate all life on the planet.
-->'''Marco''': Well. There's a happy thought.

* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow''. If Dr. Totenkopf's space ship reaches 100 kilometers above ground and its booster engines ignite, the Earth's atmosphere will be destroyed. Of course, [[YouFailPhysicsForever atmosphere doesn't work this way]]: this is a ShoutOut to how PulpMagazine ScienceFiction the movie is homage to often introduced the most ridiculous plot devices imaginable.
* ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}''. Planet Spaceball is out to steal planet Druidia's atmosphere with a giant vacuum cleaner powered by a HumongousMecha shaped like a maid.
* ''Franchise/TheMatrix'', specifically the Dark Storm Effect blotting out all sunlight in the real world. Although we don't know whether it was the humans or machines who struck first (it was [[Anime/TheAnimatrix us]]), it was the humans who scorched the sky.

* In ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'', the [[HumanAlien Psychlo]] breathe-gas reacts explosively when exposed to high levels of ionizing radiation (like the kind created by nuclear explosions). So, naturally, when the man-animals... sorry, humans decide to throw off the Psychlo yoke, they teleport a nuke to the Psychlo homeworld. Cue the all-consuming fireball, which also, for some reason, blows up the whole planet.

* Mack Reynolds' novel ''Dawnman Planet''. A race of aliens has the power to instantly convert the oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere of a planet to methane-hydrogen-ammonia, killing all of the inhabitants.

* ''Series/QuatermassII'' had a chemical plant run by humans under alien control, which was manufacturing gases in which the aliens could live. They were horribly corrosive to human flesh, and IIRC the plan was ultimately for the aliens to manufacture enough to replace the Earth's atmosphere.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The two-parter "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky," in which devices fitted to engine exhausts turned out to be atmospheric converters. The gas they give off is deadly to humans and manna to Sontaran young.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventure [=OA7=] ''[[http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/tsr9258.zip Test of the Samurai]]''. An evil magician named Za-Jikku is trying to change the planet's atmosphere. He kills people and turns them into evil butterflies, which breathe in normal air (t'ien ch'i) and change it to a deadly gas (yun ch'i). If he succeeds, he'll be able to breathe the yun ch'i and live forever but every other living creature will die.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' Adventure 4 ''Leviathan''. In the backstory, a series of nuclear explosions caused the planet Ganulf to lose its atmosphere, killing all of the inhabitants.

* ''VideoGame/TrafficDepartment2192''. The rebellion kills TheEmperor's daughter, so the Emperor floods the atmosphere with flammable gases and takes a match to the planet.

* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' and ''Homeworld 2'' have the Low-Orbit Atmosphere Deprivation Weapon, and using one is the fastest way to get put down for the sake of all living things.
* It rains acid in ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}''. The protagonist is protected, but trails clouds of smoke. The question of whether the Earth's atmosphere is irreparably damaged brought up a few times.
* The strategy of the Scrin in the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries'' of games might be better described as Biosphere Abuse, but aims for the same effect - making the planet inhospitable to everything, so there's no resistance once their fleet shows up.
* The terraforming tools in ''{{VideoGame/Spore}}'' can also be used to damage a planet's ecosystem, which can destroy buildings in colonies on that planet. [[spoiler: This tactic is particularly effective against the Grox, whose colonies self-destruct when a planet becomes habitable.]]

* To end with Solar System examples, early Mars had an atmosphere dense enough to support [[BlueMars liquid water]] on its surface and perhaps even life. However because of Mars' low gravity said atmosphere was blown away by the solar wind, with surface water disappearing and with it the life that could have existed -on its surface, that is.-

* Current (2015) theories in planetary science indicates that Venus started out with a similar amount of water and carbon dioxide as the Earth. On our world, the carbon dioxide [[SealedEvilInACan was eventually trapped in carbonate minerals]], allowing the planet to cool and conditions to become suitable for liquid water and life. However, the higher temperatures on Venus caused by its proximity to the sun meant its oceans soon evaporated, causing a super greenhouse effect with temperatures in ''[[UpToEleven the low thousands]]'' of degrees Fahrenheit and an atmospheric pressure that could have been in the hundreds of bars. The Sun's ultraviolet light caused the water vapor to break up into hydrogen and oxygen which dissipated out in to space, and Venus was left with its current 90-bar load of CO[[subscript:2]] and its temperature of more than eight hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit. Before, that is, its atmosphere being stripped away when the Sun goes red giant.

* Current (2015) theories in planetary science indicates that Venus started out with a similar amount of water and carbon dioxide as the Earth. On our world, the carbon dioxide [[SealedEvilInACan was eventually trapped in carbonate minerals]], allowing the planet to cool and conditions to become suitable for liquid water and life. However, the higher temperatures on Venus caused by its proximity to the sun meant its oceans soon evaporated, causing a super greenhouse effect with temperatures in ''[[UpToEleven the low thousands]]'' of degrees Fahrenheit and an atmospheric pressure that could have been in the hundreds of bars. The Sun's ultraviolet light caused the water vapor to break up into hydrogen and oxygen which dissipated out in to space, and Venus was left with its current 90-bar load of CO[[subscript:2]] and its temperature of more than eight hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit.

* Current (2015) theories in planetary science indicates that Venus started out with a similar amount of water and carbon dioxide as the Earth. On our world, the carbon dioxide [[SealedEvilInACan was eventually trapped in carbonate minerals]], allowing the planet to cool and conditions to become suitable for liquid water and life. However, the higher temperatures on Venus caused by its proximity to the sun meant its oceans soon evaporated, causing a super greenhouse effect with temperatures in ''[[UpToEleven the low thousands]]'' of degrees Fahrenheit. The Sun's ultraviolet light caused the water vapor to break up into hydrogen and oxygen which dissipated out in to space, and Venus was left with its current 90-bar load of CO[[subscript:2]].

* The EverythingTwo story ''[[http://everything2.com/title/Valuable+Humans+In+Transit Valuable Humans in Transit]]''.

* ''The New [[Series/TheTwilightZone Twilight Zone]]'' episode "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_in_the_Earth Voices in the Earth]]". At some point in the past the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere was changed to methane.

* "Skullcrusher Mountain", by JonathanCoulton:

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has this as the end stage of separate methods of Exterminatus. Cyclonic torpedoes ignite the atmosphere as well as most things on the surface. In the case of virus bombing, the gasses released by the virus reducing most of the planet's biomass into inflammable mulch, resulting in a planet-wide firestorm. Technically it doesn't burn the atmosphere, just the flammable gasses released there, but close enough. Cyclonic torpedoes play this completely straight.
** The Tyranids also employ this trope as part of their "harvesting". Prior to and during their invasion, the atmosphere is saturated with stimulants and mutagens to violently increase the rate of plant growth; while simultaneously infecting and debilitating local resistance. Within weeks, a barren savannah can be transformed into a steaming jungle, with 40% of the military wiped out in the process.

* ''TrafficDepartment2192''. The rebellion kills TheEmperor's daughter, so the Emperor floods the atmosphere with flammable gases and takes a match to the planet.

* ''StarControl 2'':

* During the three-part Supergirl story in the 1980s PostCrisis ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comic books, the Phantom Zone villains of the Pocket Universe decide that humanity is too bothersome to deal with once they build up a sizeable LaResistance force that could equal the villains' power. Thus the rogue Kryptonians put their plan in motion [[FinalSolution to kill everybody on Earth]] by burrowing through the planet at super-speed to its core, unleashing massive hot gases that ripped away the Earth's atmosphere and left it a lifeless husk except for the people within Lex Luthor's citadel in Smallville.

* ''TheFirstMenInTheMoon'':Although it is not actually used, professor Cavor describes in detail how cavorite has the possibility to destroy the Earth's atmosphere; a sheet of cavorite can make all the air above it weightless and cause it to shoot into space. New air that rushes in to replace the old air suffers the same fate, and this process will continue untill all the air on earth is gone.

* A couple of the solar system's moons have an atmosphere which, if not for their lack of oxygen, would be extremely explosive.

* Since the ozone layer is part of the atmosphere, it's probably relevant that one of the alien criminals in ''MenInBlackII'' was convicted of stealing some of it to sell on the black market.

* During the three-part Supergirl story in the 1980s PostCrisis ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comic books, the Phantom Zone villains of the Pocket Universe decide that humanity is too bothersome to deal with once they build up a sizeable LaResistance force that could equal the villains' power. Thus the rogue Kryptonians put their plan in motion to kill everybody on Earth by burrowing through the planet at super-speed to its core, unleashing massive hot gases that ripped away the Earth's atmosphere and left it a lifeless husk except for the people within Lex Luthor's citadel in Smallville.

* The strategy of the Scrin in the ''CommandAndConquer'' ''Tiberium'' Series of games might be better described as Biosphere Abuse, but aims for the same effect - making the planet inhospitable to everything, so there's no resistance once their fleet shows up.
* The terraforming tools in ''{{Spore}}'' can also be used to damage a planet's ecosystem, which can destroy buildings in colonies on that planet. [[spoiler: This tactic is particularly effective against the Grox, whose colonies self-destruct when a planet becomes habitable.]]

* During the three-part Supergirl story in the 1980s PostCrisis ''Superman'' comic books, the Phantom Zone villains of the Pocket Universe decide that humanity is too bothersome to deal with once they build up a sizeable LaResistance force that could equal the villains' power. Thus the rogue Kryptonians put their plan in motion to kill everybody on Earth by burrowing through the planet at super-speed to its core, unleashing massive hot gases that ripped away the Earth's atmosphere and left it a lifeless husk except for the people within Lex Luthor's citadel in Smallville.

-->"Go on an pollute the land. Clean air will be sold in cans."