If I could pretend I was the Creator and craft a more positive future, I would imagine a future that has a lower carbon emission through minimizing the unnecessary wastes in our lives.
Every household would hold on to pre-existing plastic bags and reuse them until they break, or even use fabric shopping bags.
People would have significantly smaller wardrobes, and keep wearing garments for longer. If they would reuse broken clothing for cleaning rags, that's even better.
I hope everyone would cook their own food instead of eating out, to nurture both their own health and the environment's health.
For people who don't already own cars, they would bike or walk, or take buses for modes of transport. Even those who drive already can carshare to reduce carbon emissions.
Not only does it help achieve carbon-neutrality, we would also help people emerge from a previous materialistic lifestyle that's damaging to their well-being.
Basically, these are the pillars to my minimalist utopia:
zero-waste
minimalist fashion
80% at home eating, 20% restaurants
more bikes and public transit
Much like the others who've commented, I quite like your addition of 'pillars' in your view of a minimalist utopia. Also, I'm wondering how you imagine people with cars making the transition to other, cleaner, forms of transit. Carshares and carpooling are an amazing option like you've noted, but I feel as though our current road and public transit systems aren't quite up to standard if everyone suddenly were to move towards bikes or busses. How would your utopia accommodate for this mass shift?
I really like the ideas in your post and how you offered alternatives that are more sustainable! Your pillars to your minimalist utopia are great; I definitely want to follow in your footsteps!
I love this it's so well written and your passion for this topics really comes through!
I really like how you imagined a utopia. You make some great points that we can apply in our lives, like how we can carshare (or even public transport), even if we have cars. I'm also working on cooking more, because eating out definitely one of the big things I'm guilty of!
I just wanted to say I really liked your point about repurposing old clothing for cleaning rags. I think a lot of us had the "three Rs" drilled into our heads as kids, but too often, reducing and reusing are neglected in favor of recycling.
I love the inclusion of your pillar and steps. I think that it's a great reference to model our behavior to that can both grant more fulfillment, but also more sustainability.