Scientists study the Earth. A group called the WWF honored one of these experts. On September 25, the WWF said Charitie Ropati won the Conservation Leadership Award!
The WWF focuses on saving the Earth. It protects animals from threats like . Each year, the group gives out its Conservation Leadership Award. The prize goes to a person with those goals.
Ropati is a student at Columbia University. She studies plant ecology. That is the relationship between plants and the environment. “I study a plant called fireweed,” she said. “It grows in the Arctic.”
Fireweed spreads quickly. It sends seeds through the air. Fireweed is able to move into areas after fires happen. Ropati studies fireweed in her home state of Alaska. She looks at how climate change may be affecting the plants.
Our planet is heating up. These temperature changes are affecting the Earth. “In the Arctic, things usually change slowly,” Ropati said. “But it’s not like that anymore.” Because of this, “fireweed is popping up in places that we’ve never seen before.”
Ropati’s work isn’t all about plants. She focuses on people too! Ropati has Yup’ik and Samoan . Those are groups. Ropati created lesson plans about native people for students in Alaska. She tells stories of how native people were forced to leave their homes.
Ropati is looking to the future. She created a group called lilnativegirlinSTEM. That community helps girls get involved in .
Ropati said, “I think our world would be a much better place if we had more native woman scientists!”
Updated September 27, 2023, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Tyler Burdick
