History Main / AtmosphereAbuse

* 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 ''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, gets its atmosphere stripped away when the Sun goes red giant.
** Earth will become in the far future as the Sun's luminosity increases either a Venus as is now-like world, a hellish version of Venus as described above, or most likely a bone-dry hot desert world with very little water and oxygen -before the red giant Sun strips its atmosphere too-.

* [[spoiler: Weather Report's Stand]] ability in the Part 6 of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' can actually manipulate the ozone layer of Earth itself which is the reason why [[spoiler: Enrico Pucci used his White Snake to take Weather Report's memory disc. If he had remembered his past trauma, the unconscious (and possibly apocalyptic) Heavy Weather ability of his Stand would be activated again.]]

[[folder:Film — Animated]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* ''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, the plan was ultimately for the aliens to manufacture enough to replace the Earth's atmosphere.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'': The Eurondans from "The Other Side" built an ElaborateUndergroundBase and poisoned the atmosphere of their own planet in order to exterminate the Breeders. When they make contact with Stargate Command decades later, the atmosphere is still poisonous.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episodes.
** "Return to Tomorrow''. The Enterprise finds a planet whose atmosphere was ripped away by a cataclysm half a million years earlier.
** "Obsession". At the end of the episode, a matter/antimatter explosion rips away half of a planet's atmosphere.
* Averted in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "A Matter of Time", where the Enterprise fires an ionizing phaser blast into the upper atmosphere of a planet to clear away some volcanic dust. If the blast was imperfect, it would burn away the atmosphere. Needless to say, the Enterprise saved the day.

* 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.

[[caption-width-right:350:"SHE'S GONE FROM 'SUCK' TO 'BLOW'!"]]

* 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, gets its atmosphere stripped away when the Sun goes red giant.

* During the three-part ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlSaga'' 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.

* John Christopher's ''Literature/TheTripods'' series.

* ''LightNovel/CrestOfTheStars'': Though we don't see it happen, the Abh casually mention stripping a planet of its atmosphere as one method they've used for dealing with rebellions.

* In a non-planetwide example, in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/The Tommyknockers'' the transformed residents of Haven manipulate the air in and to a certain elevation above their town into something that is both more breathable for them and toxic enough to any entering humans to make them turn back shortly after, as well as prevent internal-combustion engines from functioning.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' the Taiidan Empire punishes the Kushan for violating the terms of their exile by using a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLgGOUu2dp4 Low-Orbit Atmosphere Deprivation Weapon]] on their adopted homeworld. The only survivors being the crew of the Mothership and the occupants of what cryo-trays they manage to salvage

* ''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.

* ''Discworld/TheScienceOfDiscworld''. Paraphrased:

* ''Literature/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.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem "The Sontaran Stratagem"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5ThePoisonSky "The Poison Sky"]], the ATMOS devices, which were fitted to a car's exhaust pipe in order to remove pollutants, turned out to have another, hidden, purpose: releasing a gas to convert the Earth's atmosphere into something ideal for growing more Sontarans.

-->Picture the two of us alone inside my golden submarine
-->While above the waves my doomsday squad ignites the atmosphere
-->And all the fools who live their foolish lives may find it quite... ''explosive''
-->But it won't mean half as much to me if I don't have you here

* To end with Solar System examples, early Mars had an atmosphere dense enough to support [[OnceGreenMars liquid water]] on its surface and perhaps even life. However because of Mars' small size (read: both low gravity and a magnetic field that has mostly gone away) 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.-

* The entire atmosphere of Nu Earth in ''Comicbook/{{Rogue Trooper}}'' is lethal to non-{{Super Soldier}} GIs]] due to excessive use of chemical weapons.