A climate change novel from 2016 predicted a dystopian West of sand and refugees, writes eivironmental journalist Ben Goldfarb

In ‘Gold Fame Citrus,' by Claire Vaye Watkins,

the nascent genre of 'cli-fi' looked

to California

A 2016 climate change novel predicted a dystopian West of sand and refugees.
Ben Goldfarb | Jan. 4, 2016 

Though the super El Niño (http://www.hcn.org/issues/47.19/what-does-super-el-nino-mean-for-the-american-
west) bearing down on California stands to alleviate the state’s crippling drought, even a good drenching won’t

wash away four dry years. For nearly a half-decade, the watery foundation that underpins so many California
institutions — almonds and salmon, weed and dairy, the Salton Sea (http://www.hcn.org/issues/365/17542) and
Los Angeles itself — has wobbled under the weight of mismanagement, our national hunger for fresh produce,

and climate change. As the writer Lauren Markham put it (https://www.guernicamag.com/features/death-of-a-
valley/): “California is a great, slick hustler at the card table, bluffing a myth of plenty while holding tight the fan

of truth: we are now, and have been for the....