Set the World on Fire

Sometimes the Villain is so bad that he scorches the earth beneath his feet (see also Walking Wasteland). Sometimes his evil diffuses around the world and literally sets the world on fire. Sometimes the world is set on fire by some mishap.

"Now the sun has come to Earth
 * Trigon from Teen Titans, when he emerged on earth his presence caused the earth to look like a volcanic wasteland complete with people frozen as statues. They got better.
 * The end result of Exterminatus by virus bombs in Warhammer 40,000 is this. The virus eats every organic thing on the planet and turns them into organic sludge, high in oxygen content. Then an orbital strike engulfs the world in a firestorm.
 * Reign of Fire has dragons emerging from the depths of the Earth and burning the world.
 * Mass Effect 3: "Earth is burning."
 * In the season 1 finale of Beast Wars, the Vok decide that "the project" has been contaminated by our stranded heroes and villains. Cue one of the two moons turning into a giant laser gun of fiery death. Hey! One moon! That means we're on Earth, after all!
 * On of the planets in Homestuck was set entirely on fire.
 * In the film version of Irwin Allen's Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, the major plot is that the Earth's Van Allen belts are on fire and slowly roasting the planet.
 * While not a planet per se, Ben 10's alien form Heat Blast has its species originating from a star, meaning that there home 'planet' is constantly on fire.
 * Setting the entire atmosphere on fire were one of concerns about exploding the atomic bomb. Lucky it wasn't true, and we now know it didn't happen.
 * On Smallville an old psychic had a heart attack and died when she saw Lex Luthor's future: standing in the Oval Office as the world burns.
 * An entire alternate Earth is destroyed by fire and lava in classic Doctor Who serial Inferno.
 * In Jonathan Coulton's "Skullcrusher Mountain", the singer's plan involves being in a submarine while igniting the atmosphere.
 * Attempted in the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender by Firelord Ozai.
 * Ian Campbell's "The Sun is Burning" (later Covered Up by Simon and Garfunkel).

Shrouded in a mushroom cloud of death

Death comes in a blinding flash

Of hellish heat and leaves a smear of ash

And the sun has come to Earth"


 * Defied in The Ink Spots' song "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire". "...I just want to start a flame in your heart".
 * Babylon 5: on the eve of defeat, President Clark programmed the Earth's network of defense satellites to turn on his own planet. If he couldn't rule, no one could.
 * In the novel Nightfall, people set their cities aflame when darkness comes (about every 2,000 years), since they panic (having never seen actual darkness).
 * Happens in the Dresden Codak strip Caveman Science Fiction
 * The 1980s Scare'Em Straight documentary The Nuclear Holocaust: a Scientific Forecast shows how a full-scale nuclear exchange would set fire to almost every bit of combustible material on Earth that wasn't vaporized. "The whole world is burning," says the show's surprisingly cheerful host.
 * On one Christmas Episode of Futurama, the oxygen content of Earth's atmosphere is elevated by mutant Christmas trees. Then Bender lights a cigar...