To be pedantic, the survival for magnetic poles shifting is "go about life as normal". The magnetic poles are constantly shifting, just not very fast (~50km/year or so). Reversal would be a bit more dramatic, though...
Motion of the poles has sped up quite dramatically in the past century. That 50 km/year is up from almost zero in the late 1800's and 15 km/year in the early 1900's.
So it isn't entirely out there to worry a bit out reversal. Current thinking is that the Earth's magnetic field becomes multi-polar during reversals, but field strength won't dramatically diminish. So if it does happen, it'll complicate some things, and no doubt result in some economic activity, but won't be the end of the world.
