I find that it's difficult to associate with other sustainable thinkers, especially with the biggest sustainability challenge of them all - global warming.
Is there some really famous green social media network / plug-in that I could use to associate with nearby sustainable/green thinkers?
I would really like to make my carbon footprint as small as possible, and nearby people would help.
Almost all of the websites in this list found on Google are dead or dying...
As far as I know there isn't a "really famous green social media network / plug-in" where lots of green-minded people hang out and where you can just select the ones that live close to you. It's probably easier (and perhaps also more efficient) to reach out to real-life groups and communities in your area. Nevertheless you can try the following:
Nearby
Alternatives (not necessarily nearby)
If you really want to connect to people using the Internet then why not broaden your scope and connect to anyone, no matter where they live? There are lots of people all over the world who are willing to provide advice on how to reduce your carbon footprint. To name a few possibilities:
MOOCS: sign up for interesting sustainability, global warming or other carbon footprint-related courses on MOOC platforms like Coursera and Edx. The best courses have active discussion forums and you can learn a lot from them.
Twitter: I don't use it personally, but I know of other people who connected to similarly-minded people after they started following a specific tag. Twitter has a #carbonfootprint tag
Joulebug: with the Joulebug app (no affiliation) you can compete in local or global challenges or with friends. It has people from all over the world, but the majority seems to be from the US. If you're lucky you may be able to find a person living close to you, but the number of active users is limited and it's hard to determine where people come from (no location data on profiles)
This website: you could also use this site to connect to other people. We have a sustainability chat room. It's usually not very active, but we only need 2 or 3 regular visitors there to change that. You could also just post a discussion question on chat if no-one is around and wait for reactions.
Meetup.com has all sorts of groups with different interests, and I am sure you will find a nearby group that aligns with yours. It is designed to show you what is happening close to you.
In a different manner, what I would call a "green" social network also relates to how it functions and the principles on which it was designed. I know you are asking specifically about connecting to nearby folks to reduce you carbon footprint, but consider this: The Federation is a bunch of different Free Software-based social networks that can interact with each other. One of them is Diaspora, which is Free Software that you can host yourself (and run the server on renewable energy if you want to ;) ), but you can also try to find a local pod to sign up. You can even create a local pod that is specifically focused on sustainability, because you can personalise the software. I think that those alternative social networks are sustainable "sensu lato" because it is Free Software, focused on respecting privacy, decentralised, and built to be interoperable. And to tell you the truth, a very big chunk of the users are quite interested in reducing their environmental footprint, because that's the kind of crowd that those networks attract.
Finally, I can think of a different way to connect to like-minded people: start volunteering with an organisation or a political party that is aligned with your interest in reducing your carbon footprint, and has a significant number of members in their local branch. You are likely to find very motivated people that already have a system in place to communicate and organise actions.
Good luck, and keep us informed of what you find!
Here's what I've come across so far (not affiliated, just sharing):
collective.energy is a fairly new but highly active community, I was lucky to notice its launch on Product Hunt recently;
green apes is a platform for sharing all things sustainable and be rewarded for your impact - it originates from Italy and currently is most active in Europe, but spreading worldwide as well;
treeday has an active community along with the guides and maps of sustainable businesses and places, also with a reward system - it originates from Germany and is most active there and across Europe.
Joulebug which THelper mentioned earlier also has alternatives, e.g. 1 million women app originating from Australia, there's always some discussion going on in the comments section of sustainable actions, and there's an opportunity to create and join groups although currently no one uses this feature.
