There are lots of proponents of electric cars, solar roofs, batteries, vegetarian diets, no fly, train transport and what is , at least as a concept, living green .
Finding anyone doing all these things and accurately documenting the embodied carbon in the infrastructure or the actual costs to get started are somehow much rarer.
If you have to fly for your job or if the place you are employed is an energy hog then the money you purchase the car, house ,solar, etc. should be reflected in embodied costs.
I think it is expensive to buy all the infrastructure , I also think many people don't think their wages or how they are earned should go into the calculations. But high paid jobs that make the infrastructure purchases possible or your stock portfolio , or your pensions come with added carbon .
As far as going back goes I think it would be amazing to do a very honest carbon accounting of low tech farming families who both work and feed themselves from their farms. If there are carbon costs in selling their produce those costs should be included. Their homes, farm equipment and some carbon accounting of their marketing / transport costs.
How would the carbon costs add up ? The old, the slow the local compared to the green lifestyles currently being marketed ?
I personally think a small farm family, heating their home with wood, not traveling to town very often,
eating meat ,drinking milk, and vegetables from the farm, draft animals, bicycles and simple tools would beat by miles any modern green solutions being marketed.
If you were to start with the rural life model and judiciously add modern inventions that are affordable, like heat pumps, led bulbs, maybe some limited solar and batteries I think you could live at carbon costs significantly less than trying to stuff our opulence and expectations of comfort into a green BAU suburban packages.
Flying is just a symptom of a bigger disease. I have the same disease as the rest of you it's just that I also try to live in two worlds. And I'm not skilled in either of them. I am going to make my first flight in 5 years on a business /pleasure trip. Farm related but not really necessary but hopefully good for the pig breed I keep. A pig breeders meeting. My last flight was also a pig farmers meeting.
The fighting fire with fire idea better be a fight for something better and count me out if it's a fight for
the first class seats. Most battles are.