Almost exactly two years from this day, humans of the world are going to begin suffering from an incredibly devastating affliction that will incapacitate and make many wish they were dead: a hangover. 

And that's probably the extent of it. 

Every century-turning brings nuts out of the woodwork, easily gaining some level of fame with a change-frightened populace.  Psychics are the name of the game these days.  These individuals who claim to have the power of prophecy get screen time on such programs as Larry King Live (who did that Roswell Anniversary show in the desert) and, of course, Strange Universe (the funniest show on TV).  Most of them claim that the world is going to go through some titanic geological change that will kill billions and cause society to degenerate by centuries. 

One site, called FutureFate has a listing of predictions on their site that span such topics as "pole shift" to "the price that must be paid." 

Since I am not a geologist, I cannot comment on the reality of these various prophecies that claim to be supported by science.  Since I have not read many of these individuals' books, then I cannot honestly take them to task.  What I can do is take a certain Prophet to task, a person with whom I am intimately familiar: Nostradamus. 

Many of Nostradamus' works were written in code.  It was intended that he be the only one to truly know what he was writing.  Translations still abound, and the commentaries by "scholars" abound as well. 

What many have called one of the most "accurate" prophecies is his comment on the Challenger disaster: 

            From the human flock nine will be sent away,
            Separated from control and advice
            Their fate will be sealed on departure
            K-Th-L make a error; the dead banished

This was obtained from James B. Flanagan's website.  He has his own commentaries on the quatrain: 

Separated from control and advice -> The ground controllers could do nothing. Contact was lost with the astronauts after the explosion. It is said that they may have survived for a period of time afterwards.

This is a stretch.  One can describe any group of travelers as "separated from control and advice." 

Their fate will be sealed on departure -> Videos show that flame was escaping while the rocket was still on the pad. Their fate was sealed from the instant of departure.

This is another stretch.  There is a 50-50 shot here; either there was something wrong when they left or something happened while they were gone. 

K-Th-L -> ThioKoL - manufacturer of the defective rocket engine. Vowels are omitted and two consonants transposed.

Another stretch.  How many words in the French and English languages have the sounds of "k, th and l" in them?  Besides, it was not the entire engine that was at fault. 

Worst of all, there were seven people on the Challenger, not nine. 

This is another prediction of Nostradamus, this time taken from Goro Adachi's site (the commentary is his as well). 

    At forty-five degrees the sky will burn,
    Fire to approach the great new city:
    In an instant a great scattered flame will leap up,
    When they want to have proof of the Normans.

Here are some of Goro's interperetations: 

Although the typical translation of the first part of line is "At forty-five degrees...", it is not the most direct translation. The "Cinq & quarante" part of the line actually says "Five & forty" in English. Therefore, it is not necessarily "forty- five". It could easily mean '40.5' also!

I have studied three foreign languages (only one of them being a Romance language) and all three of them use the same number notation as the French.  In none of them does Five and Forty mean 40.5! 

...the most significant symbolic connection is made by the Statue of Liberty that stands at the entrance to New York Harbor in Upper New York Bay. This world-famous symbol of freedom conjoins New York City (the statue's location) and the Olympics (the statue holding a torch). Considering how cleverly Nostradamus' quatrains are constructed, it is very conceivable that Line 2 skillfully combines the two events (plane explosion & Olympics) happening almost simultaneously.

Huh?  The Statue of Liberty holds a torch, true, and the Olympics is signified by a torch, correct, but the symbolism behind the two torches is arguably quite different. 

Goro then goes on to attempt a connection between the Normans (the French) and the Olympics (restarted by a Frenchman), and tie that into the Statue of Liberty, which ties in the "new city" (though one could make the argument that every city in the USA would be "new" to Nostradamus) and the TWA 800 disaster. 

Here is Goro's explanation of his method: 

...even if a [sic] interpretation of a quatrain on a certain level turned out to be somewhat incoherent, you can go back and study the three-way correlation between the interpretation, original quatrain, and the actual event itself, and then 'back-engineer' and reconstruct the interpretation.

This is a ridiculous method of scientific study, the precise opposite of what science does!  Taking any of his interpretations seriously after reading this is a great suspension of reason.