I remember that around Y2K, the Boston Globe was laughing at predictions that never came true from 1900. They only revealed their stupidity with this one:
The eradication of the house fly from our streets.
Or something to that effect.
What they’re really showing is that they don’t understand like in 1900. Flies were in incredible swarms because the streets were literally lined in horse poop. Not a little; a LOT. With the flies came typhus, cholera, dysentery, consumption...
Switching to gas-power prevented all those diseases.
And dead horses. They had crews that patrolled the street for them and hauled them off. Our sustainable, carbon-neutral future.