This article explores two divergent meanings for the term practical solutions and uses this idea as a toolfor investigating some of the options that have been putforth for addressing environmental concerns. The range of environmental policy options stretches from those solutions whose appeal rests on the perception that they can be put into practice to those whose primary attraction is their claim that they will accomplish the task prescribedfor them. The article looks atfive of the many options that have been suggestedfor responding to environmental degradation. They can be grouped within three broad categories: (a) cornucopian free-market growth, (b) environmental economics and sustainable development, and (c) reform environmentalism and authoritarian command-and-control regulation. The dilemma in environmental politics is that solutions that are practical in the sense offeasibility may not be practical in the sense of workability.
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