Question: does pollution cause poverty?????:)

Dr Hywel Jones answered on 25 Jun 2010:

Wow, now this is a tricky one. It seems clear that pollution is associated with poverty but whether or not it is a cause of poverty is not clear. This is not my area really and would probably be the area for social scientists, geographers and economists.
The great thing about the scientific method is that you can work out whether something is actually caused by something or whether it is just associated with it such as may be the case in your example.