natural limits
Built-in stopping points
Natural limits are boundaries imposed by physical reality rather than human choice or convention.
A cheetah's top speed has natural limits; so does the carrying capacity of an ecosystem.
The phrase often appears in discussions of growth, resources, or human capability: There are natural limits to how long anyone can go without sleep.
Sometimes invoked to argue against ambition or intervention: We shouldn't push beyond natural limits.
- boundariesLines marking separation
- thresholdPoint of beginning
- carrying capacityPopulation an environment sustains
- ceilingRoom's upper surface
- constraintLimiting condition or rule
hard ceiling · finite · finite resources · scarcity · exhaustion · depletion · ecological footprint · overshoot · sustainability · equilibrium · saturation · breaking point · tipping point · point of no return · ecosystem · resources · diminishing returns · population
- creationismcreation, creator, young earth, creation science, creation story
- MalthusianismMalthusianism, geometric growth, moral restraint, misery, vice
natural, limits, nature, limit, naturally, unnatural, naturalism, naturalist, naturalistic