ABSTRACT
The state with all its organisation, resources and programmes is a set of manmade mechanisms, the limits of which are set by physics and biology. Thus, government must respect the implications of the natural sciences for the social sciences. Biology and physics (as well as chemistry) defines the degrees of freedom of human action. As the organisation of human activities display great variation, the implications of nature for the state are not highly restrictive. Yet, governments face increasing ecological demands in their policy-making.
