In his book The Morality of Freedom, Joseph Rat argues that the promotion o
f personal autonomy can serve as a constitutive principle for a comprehensi
ve political theory. He maintains that three conditions are necessary for a
ttainment of individual autonomy: appropriate mental abilities, an adequate
range of options, and independence. In this essay, by focusing on Rat's co
nception of an adequate range of options, we suggest that Rat's theory just
ifies environmental conservation in general. We present an empirical framew
ork of present-day assaults on personal autonomy, construct a heuristic sce
nario, and argue against both neoclassical economics and utility maximizati
on as adequate criteria regarding environmental decisions. We conclude that
successful environmental policies should directly or indirectly strive to
provide the conditions necessary for promoting individual autonomy.