And single cells can adapt to larger-scale threats than could the first living molecular processes. A further very general advantage of cooperation is that it can prevent the harmful effects of destructive competition. A population of such individuals will damage each other's interests, and all will loose. Obvious examples are fighting between animals over food and territories and the chemical warfare waged between plants over places to live. Competition between rabbits on an island can result in the destruction of all food sources, resulting in the death of the rabbit population.
Pollution is another example.
A company that seeks only to maximise its profits will engage in activities that degrade the environment if this produces the highest profit. The advantages of cooperation mean that a whole world of new adaptive opportunities is opened whenever living processes team up to form a cooperative organisation. This has clearly been the case when molecular processes teamed up to form cells, when cells teamed up to form multicellular organisms, and when humans teamed up to form social systems. Each of these levels of cooperative organisation has been able to conquer new environments and develop adaptations unknown to the levels that preceded them. We can be sure that new evolutionary opportunities will also be opened up as human organisation expands to the scale of the planet and beyond.