In other words, just because some past predictions have been wrong doesn't mean that all current and future ones will be.

The situations discussed in the article mostly had human influences that changed the course of events so that predictions didn't come true - mining and oil companies doing more exploration when suppplies ran low and/ or prices went up, people reducing fertility rates when infant mortality rates fell, means of subsistence were adopted other than slash and burn.

Also, I don't think that the vast majority of scientists in these fields were in support of the predictions.

Do you see human-caused CO2 emissions dropping any time soon, barring massive epidemics or widespread, devastating wars, or the development of some cheap, plentiful, non-polluting source of energy that uses vortices?

Yes, some predictions in the past have been wrong, but many have been correct. I hope that the worst scenarios of global warming don't happen, but are we willing to bet on it?