I would posit that good leadership and desire to survive could prevent humanity from retreating to the earth like naked mole rats.

It very well could. I like having contingency plans and not letting my survival and the survival of our civilization solely depend on the promises of congress critters. I also want to learn earth bending from the giant badgermoles so I am biased.

I hadn't considered the badgermole angle..fair enough. Have this webcomic that I spent more trying to find than I should because I get flashbacks whenever I hear people throw out the "we'll live underground" angle

https://badspacecomics.com/rivers-end-copy