The air we breathe is this extremely precious thing. Especially, because there is so little of it - the atmosphere is really thin, it’s like if you wrapped a single layer of plastic wrap around a basketball. That thin sheet is what makes this tiny little planet in the vast solar system, and as far as we know - universe - able to sustain life. In this episode of the Essentials of Environmental Science, we’re going to look at some ways in which human beings have negatively affected the thin layer of earth’s atmosphere by filling it with pollutants, how we study the atmosphere, and how we can protect it.