As climate change fuels more severe and frequent storms, floods, and fires, the risk grows that these phenomena mobilize contamination from hazardous waste and materials sites. Research shows that demographically more vulnerable communities live nearer hazardous sites and in areas of higher risk from climate change. When severe weather releases harmful substances from hazardous sites, the result is a compound disaster event whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Using two markets for housing in Glynn County, GA as an indicator of residents’ awareness of this compound risk, I find that the main property market capitalizes the contamination and climate change risks and to some degree the compound risk of climate and contamination. The property market on the barrier islands capitalizes only the climate risk. The results of this work make possible community information provision to correct this market failure.
