Poverty is the product of little or no education.
Without the tools a well-rounded education brings, people are left clueless when it comes to understanding environmental problems in all aspects. In an economic standpoint uneducated people tend to be part of the low-income bracket. This means they have little or no options when choosing their careers. They may even become the people who destroy the environment just to scrape out a living. No, they're not the primary cause of the problems.