Is it possible to predict the future?

This article looks at a number of predictions that were wrong:

Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future

Some of the predictions are staggering in their incorrectness. This one is interesting in light of Amazon, Ebay and QVC: “Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop - because women like to get out of the house, like to handle merchandise, like to be able to change their minds.” - TIME, 1966

The list omits one of my favorites: “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

The list also omits the predictions of the 1960s of ecological collapse and world famine. Books like “Silent Spring” and “The Hungry Planet” in the 60s painted a bleak picture, and things did look bad. But it seems like things got better rather than worse since then.

Did they really get better, or did they simply slow down to the point where they were no longer a “crisis”? Have they actually remained on simmer for several decades, and are we now about to see the full reality of a dire situation? The UN and Scientific American suggest that we are:

The World Is Not Enough for Humans

Here are some of the article’s predictions:

1) Mass extinctions are on the way. “The planet is in the grips of the sixth great extinction in its 4.5-billion-year history, this one largely man-made. Species are becoming extinct 100 times faster than the average rate in the fossil record.”

2) A climate catastrophe. “Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.76 degree Celsius) over the past century and could increase as much as 8.1 degrees F (4.5 degrees C) over the next unless “drastic” steps are taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from, primarily, burning fossil fuels.” Some believe that it is already too late to do anything about climate changes, as we have already passed the tipping point.

3) World famine. “Continuing population growth paired with a shift toward eating more meat leads the UNEP to predict that food demand may more than triple.”

4) Massive water shortages. “One in 10 of the world’s major rivers, including the Colorado and the Rio Grande in the U.S., fail to reach the sea for at least part of the year, due to demand for water. And that demand is rising; by 2025, the report predicts, demand for fresh water will rise by 50 percent in the developing world and 18 percent in industrialized countries.”

5) The end of fish? “global fishing yields have declined by 10.6 million metric tons.”

This video talks about the fishing problem by examining tuna, which could be “commercially extinct in three years”:

It doesn’t look good at all. So, are these scientists right, or will we look back in 2050 and see that they were wrong?