Tags: human evolution, volanoes
Categories: Idioms
An example of idiom used in public science discourse
"It was argued that [the Toba eruption] would have set up a volcanic winter, similar to what we have talked about for the nuclear winter where climates just went South, terribly South, and it was argued that human populations might have been forced to the edge of extinction."
John W. Kappelman Jr
Prof. John Kappelman (Anthropology, University of Texas) was talking on an episode ('Out of Africa') of Science in Action.
South here is not used as a cardinal direction but metaphorically to mean things deteriorated. This is an idiom that users of the English language are expected to be familiar with. (See 'science through idioms').
