The Coming Ice Age (1982)

The 1982 book Fact or Fantasy (World of Tomorrow) by Neil Ardley contains the two-page spread below which illustrates domed cities of the future. The domes are necessary to protect humanity from the "savage cold" yet to come.


What is our planet going to be like in the future? From the way in which the Earth moves around the Sun, we have some ideas of the kind of weather that both we and our descendants are going to suffer or enjoy. It seems that the rest of their century; in general, summers will be less warm and winters more severe. Meteorologists expect the next century to be mostly cold, but the weather should improve in about 150 years time!

See also:
Closer Than We Think! Polar City (1959)
Communities May Be Weatherized (Edwardsville Intelligencer, 1952)
Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)
Superfarm of the Year 2020 (1979)

Closer Than We Think! Polar City (1959)

The January 25, 1959 Chicago Tribune ran this picture of the "Polar City of the Future" as a part of the Closer Than We Think! series.

As Alaska joins the union, more rapid development of the vast open spaces of that new state can be expected. Experts are already studying the problems involved in creating the population centers that will be necessary for tapping the hidden-wealth of the area and building the defense outposts that may be required.

One possibility would be to construct arctic cities under great domes of transparent plastic or glass, where springlike temperatures could be maintained. Such domes are already in use at the Glasgow Central Station in Scotland and at a big downtown plaza in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

How would isolated polar cities, ringed by icebergs and mountains, be supplied? Our armed forces have a solution - the dirigible. Recently, the Navy told how its blimp ZPG-2 successfully flew food and other supplies to an ice island team of scientists only 500 miles from the North Pole.

See also:
Closer Than We Think! (1958-1963)
Closer Than We Think! Monoline Express (1961)
Closer Than We Think! Lunar Mailbag (1960)

American Version of Postcards Showing the Year 2000 (circa 1900)

The image above is an American version of the German postcards from the late 19th and early 20th century. The postcard was found in the book Out of Time: Designs for the Twentieth-Century Future. The text on the left reads, "Compliments of Maher and Crosh Cutlery Co." while the text on the right reads, "Toledo, Ohio."

The image below is the German version of the postcard.


See also:
Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)
Collier's Illustrated Future of 2001 (1901)
Predictions of a 14-Year-Old (Milwaukee Excelsior, 1901)
The Next Hundred Years (Milwaukee Herold und Seebote, 1901)
What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years (Ladies Home Journal, 1900)

Communities May Be Weatherized (Edwardsville Intelligencer, 1952)

The Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) ran an article on December 15, 1952 outlining a vision of weather-controlled communities of the future.

"Weather-conditioned" communities in the future are perfectly feasible, according to a professor of architecture.

Ambrose M. Richardson of the University of Illinois announced that his graduate architecture students already are working on a model of plastic pillows, helium-filled and joined to make a mile-high floating dome.

Next spring Richardson intends to try the idea with a small dome covering about an acre of land.

He said the next step may be covering 10 or 15 acre areas such as football stadiums and baseball parks. Larger domes - made of thousands of transparent pillows each only a few feet square - covering whole communities would be only a step away.

See also:
Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)
Hubert H. Humphrey's Year 2000 (1967)
Superfarm of the Year 2020 (1979)

Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)

[Update: The Paleo-Future blog has moved. You can read and comment on this entry here.]

A Quick Stroll on the WaterPaleo-Future reader Tom T. sent me an amazing collection of postcards from the dawn of the twentieth century that depict what life would be like in the year 2000. According to Tom the postcards were originally featured here but have since been removed. The site claimed that the postcards were produced by Hildebrands (a leading German chocolate company of the time).

The Moving PavementHouse-Moving by TrainTelevised Outside BroadcastingPersonal Flying MachinesWeather Control MachineCombined Ship and Railway LocomotiveUndersea Tourist BoatsRoofed CitiesPersonal AirshipsSummer Holidays at the North PolePolice X-Ray Surveillance Machine

See also:
Collier's Illustrated Future of 2001 (1901)
Predictions of a 14-Year-Old (Milwaukee Excelsior, 1901)
The Next Hundred Years (Milwaukee Herold und Seebote, 1901)
What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years (Ladies Home Journal, 1900)
Amphibian Monorail (Popular Science, 1934)