Frozen in indifference: Life goes on around body found in vacant Detroit warehouse

DETROIT -- This city has not always been a gentle place, but a series of events over the past few, frigid days causes one to wonder how cold the collective heart has grown.

It starts with a phone call made by a man who said his friend found a dead body in the elevator shaft of an abandoned building on the city's west side.

"He's encased in ice, except his legs, which are sticking out like Popsicle sticks," the caller phoned to tell this reporter.
...
A colony of homeless men live in the warehouse. Wednesday morning a few fires were burning inside oil drums. Scott Ruben, 38, huddled under filthy blankets not 20 paces from the elevator shaft.

Some tree species may have suffered damage in cold | argusleader.com | Argus Leader

“Generally how cold it becomes is not an issue, since our mid-winter temperatures rarely dip into the minus 30-degree range - wind chill is not a consideration,” Ball said. “However, this winter the minus 40-degree temperatures that occurred in many communities may result in some injury to those plants that cannot tolerate this extreme cold..."

Shouldn't we first vote on whether we want a cooler Earth?: Scientists Rank Global Cooling Hacks | Wired Science from Wired.com

The clear winners, cost aside, are strategies that would block out some solar radiation. Perhaps the most currently workable version of this technique is injecting millions of tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Of course, the injections would have to continue until the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were brought back down and the environmental costs could be high. Another high-impact technique would increase the albedo — or reflectivity — of the tops of clouds.