Hurricane Katrina in Climate Fiction: Future Anterior in Orleans and New York 2140

Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 (2017) and Sherri L. Smith’s Orleans (2013) are works of climate fiction (cli-fi) that rely on Hurricane Katrina to inform their climate change futures. Writing from the future anterior, both authors look back on Hurricane Katrina’s legacies to trace a through line of environmental racism from the past to the future, demonstrating that without addressing the connections between climate change and racial injustice, action against either will be incomplete.