Epic speech of Mark Carney at WEF (original available on their webpage as video or transcript) is marking a historical moment where USA is not longer understood as a leader, and any partnership which might be restored in future administration will be taken with a grain of salt. What a time to be alive. Somehow we re-learn the old life lesson that if the biggest chimpanzee abuses his position of power, some weaker ones will organise against him. Cooperation is what made our species special!
And as much as synergy, sustainability and harmonized growth became laughing stock for (and because of) cynical people who abused these terms, there are deep reasons why they entered our vocabularies. These concept originate from simple truth that advancements of any sort are much more likely to happen when environment allows safe cooperation, free information flow and expression of new methods/ideas. Such circumstances allow organic growth both in literal and figurative sense.
On basic biological level - see that we, humans, represent a success of multi-cellular, highly organised mechanism, where specialization of tissue types allowed emergence of more and more advanced behaviours for the sake of survival and reproduction. Our bone tissue, heart, and brain - usually don’t compete and don’t fight with each other. Look little closer, and you realise that even on cellular level we got an amazing cooperation - our mitochondria (thingy in cells responsible for energy management) were initially guests - they come from bacterial endosymbionts. Similar magic happened to plants, read about endosymbiotic origin of chloroplasts!
Even though the goal, self-preservation, is self-centered/egoistic - the means are not. The question is whether the resulting organism should replicate this strategy on next level, and practice shows that working together usually works better than malevolent competition. Whenever I see powerful outcomes of humanity’s progress, like dozens of railroad tracks alongside each other, electric substation, or enormous bridge - more than just the view I enjoy its symbolic power, admiring it as a token of something which would have never been possible to come into existence merely by effort of one person. We stand on shoulders of giants.
If you have time and energy to watch one video on youtube - this one is great and conveys similar message.