The Experts Predict (Fun with the NYT Archives)

[NY Times September 15, 1948, Wednesday]
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 -- Scientists took stock here today of what science had wrought in the past hundred years and visioned a dark outlook for the human race in the next century. They linked this outlook to overpopulation and the dwindling of natural resources, both of which are the direct consequences of progress in science and technology.

[NY Times June 23, 1955, Thursday]
WASHINGTON, June 22 -- Three top scientists called today for a halt in the mass vaccination of children against poliomyelitis with Salk vaccine. They urged an immediate concentrated effort on producing a "safer" vaccine with regularity.

[NY Times November 8, 1936, Sunday]
WORLD POPULATION HELD NEARING PEAK; Johns Hopkins Scientists Say 2100 A.D. Will See High Point of 2,645,500,000.

[NY Times July 27, 1972, Thursday]
Scientists Say Tidal Waves Will Hit West Coast in 1973

[NY Times July 15, 1928, Sunday]
DES MOINES, Iowa, July 14.--The present Presidential campaign will signalize in American history the collapse of the two-party system and the birth of a new system of smaller parties, according to the opinion of ninety political scientists, expressed at the close of the annual Commonwealth Conference at the University of Iowa, Wednesday.

[NY Times May 26, 1934, Saturday]
Science Will Liberate All Mankind In Next Century, Leaders Predict; In Chicago 'Preview,' Summoned by Sloan, Industrialists, Scientists and Doctors Foresee 70-Year Life Span, Ground-Powered Planes, Sunlight Motors, Slumless Cities and World Television. Marvels of Science Forecast for the Next Hundred Years .

[NY Times July 14, 1924, Monday]
PHILADELPHIA, July 13. -- A prediction that some time, in the not far distant future New York. City would be shaken by an earthquake more terrible than the one which wrecked Tokio last Summer was made today by Professor David Todd, professor of astronomy at Amherst College. 

[NY Times February 5, 1980, Tuesday]
RECENT studies by resource and population scientists reveal that many of the earth's resources that enable the human race to feed, shelter, transport and clothe itself have passed their peak production years.

[NY Times December 24, 1977, Saturday]
ENERGY AGENCY SEES STABLE OIL PRICES; Experts Predict a World Glut Lasting Until 1981 or 1982 Glut Expected to Last Until 1981 Minor Increases Not Ruled Out
[The price of a barrel of West Texas Crude at the end of Dec, 1977 was $14.48, by the end of 1981 the price was $35.82, a rise of 147% - JH]

[NY Times January 3, 1957, Thursday]
RECORD FORECAST FOR U.S. ECONOMY; 14 Experts Predict 4% Gain This Year in the Gross National Product Shift Is Noted

This is likely to be the best business year in history in the opinion of fourteen economists polled by the National Industrial Conference Board.
[The actual rise in GDP for 1957 was 2%, the average GDP growth from 1945-1956 - JH]