A Social-Media Site Built to Fight Climate Change

Now here's a brilliant idea: A social-media website specifically designed to aid the fight against climate change.

If you agree, then you must check out We Don't Have Time.

Launched on Earth Day (April 22) this year, We Don't Have Time says its "goal is to become the Facebook of climate change — a digital platform where anyone committed to solving the climate crisis can start a campaign, celebrate or criticize the actions of companies and politicians from a climate perspective and present suggestions and ideas."

Headquartered in Sweden, the site's name reflects the sense of urgency motivating its founders. "The political and economic elites are clearly not taking climate change and the threat against our ecosystems seriously enough, or we wouldn’t be where we are today," says CEO Ingmar Rentzhog. "We can’t trust that political leaders, government officials and financial stakeholders will do enough by themselves. We believe that real change will only come if a movement of ordinary citizens from all over the world demands change. We must push them, ourselves, and our peers, to do much more, and faster."

The site facilitates many approaches. Members have online tools to launch and promote climate-action campaigns, efficient methods for starting petitions, digital soapboxes for sounding off against politicians and companies up to no good — and for celebrating people and institutions doing the right thing.

Already, the campaigns show striking diversity. From "Boycott Brazilian Food" (responding to the burning Amazon) to "Environmental issues should be taught at preschool" to "IKEA, make climate-friendly choices easy," the site's good efforts are all over the green map.

"We're a grassroots platform where everyone can join in, no matter who they are," says Rentzhog. "It will result in companies and politicians doing more good, and inspire them to compete in that way."

Communications can work in the other direction. "At the same time, climate-conscious businesses can use the platform to reach interested climate-conscious stakeholders," the company says. "We want to make it easy to effect change."

Rentzhog, an entrepreneur with a background in pension financing and real-estate investment funds, established We Don't Have Time as a "good cause company," which melds the requirement of financial viability with an obligation to prioritize its declared goals. "We’ve chosen to set up the company as a hybrid between a limited company and a charitable foundation," he says. "The company’s role is to generate financial returns, while the focus and long-term approach is guaranteed by its majority stakeholder, which is a non-profit Foundation.

"The long-term objective is to acquire at least 100 million active users that can propel real change on our platform," Rentzhog continues. "This will be financed through a revenue flow from advertising by climate-friendly corporations that want to engage conscious customers."

It is an admirable and daring enterprise, one inspired by Rentzhog's belief that, "The way to move forward is to act together."

We hope that, for We Don't Have Time, the time is now.

—By Maggie Shabazz