Readers Write: Habitat, cryptocurrency mining, cashless transactions, customer service, ‘Dilbert’

Opinion editor’s be aware: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers on-line and in print every day. To contribute, click on right here.

•••

What a transferring, thorough and completely heart-breaking story you have got instructed within the article “Can they arrive again?” (an installment of the occasional collection “Vanishing North,” Oct. 9) concerning the disappearance of the Poweshiek skipperling butterfly from the Minnesota panorama. How touching the efforts of Cale Nordmeyer and Erik Runquist to care about these tiny creatures and wish to save them.

The methods the human race has altered the Earth so carelessly, as if reducing down forests, paving over prairies, draining wetlands, utilizing dangerous chemical compounds in our air, soil and water, as if this might by no means meet up with us: Nicely, it has.

It has baffled me that conversations about local weather change appear to focus, nevertheless late and nevertheless little, on lowering carbon emissions. And but that is just one a part of the issue. Habitat loss for numerous creatures, reducing down bushes wanted to absorb CO2 and supply shade, all contribute not solely to species extinction but additionally to the warmth island we now name the Twin Cities. But main development websites proceed to eat up habitat, including asphalt and cement by the acre.

This final yr I watched an enormous tract of land in Champlin, the place my grandson and I used to see turkeys and red-tailed hawks, get eaten up by many one-story industrial buildings and their parking tons. Farewell to the turkeys and hawks.

I hope I see a Poweshiek skipperling butterfly sometime. However I attempted to take pleasure in this morning by getting out for my stroll whereas the large full moon was nonetheless within the sky. I like the moon — it is one in all my favourite components of nature. And I like that we won’t smash it. It is already barren.

Karen Jeffords-Brown, St. Paul

CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING

I wish to reply an Oct. 9 letter author’s query of whether or not somebody can clarify why crypto mining with its huge use of electrical energy is an effective factor.

Bitcoin mining represents lower than 0.5% of the world’s electrical energy consumption and secures a worldwide digital community that has by no means been hacked and that now has greater than 100 million customers, lots of whom dwell in international locations with double-digit or triple-digit inflation and the place their private property could also be topic to seizure by authoritarian regimes. It is usually vital to notice that bitcoin mining’s sustainable power utilization is rising yearly. The Bitcoin Mining Council now estimates the power combine is as much as 59.5% renewable. Different analysis ranges from 40% to 75%.

Bitcoin mining is extraordinarily aggressive, and miners can find their rigs anyplace on the planet the place energy is reasonable or stranded: for instance, hydroelectric energy in Iceland, or wind and solar energy in Texas. Miners there’ll purchase extra wind and photo voltaic power when costs are low cost and can flip off their operations throughout excessive demand durations, thus stabilizing and incentivizing the growth of the renewable power electrical grid. Exxon and others are mining bitcoin with methane fuel, a byproduct of oil manufacturing that might usually be vented or flared into the environment.

Bitcoin has been the best-performing asset prior to now decade, it has modified the lives of many underprivileged individuals all through the world and its mining operations present a worthwhile service to the community. Please welcome these miners if they arrive to a city close to you.

Nat Robbins, Minneapolis

CASHLESS TRANSACTIONS

In regards to the Oct. 9 front-page article “Cashing in on going cashless,” each U.S. invoice clearly states: “This be aware is authorized tender for all money owed, private and non-private.” In view of this, I used to be below the impression that each enterprise that held itself out to do enterprise with the general public legally needed to settle for U.S. bucks if provided in fee. Apparently, I’m mistaken! What’s the regulation on this?

In any case, if my cash isn’t adequate for a spot, I am not going to do enterprise there.

Don E. Scheid, Northfield

Opinion editor’s be aware: To “tender” is to supply. Foreign money outlined as “authorized tender” below Part 31 U.S.C. 5103 is a sound and authorized provide of fee. In accordance to the Federal Reserve at tinyurl.com/faqs-tender, “there isn’t any federal statute mandating {that a} personal enterprise, an individual, or a corporation should settle for foreign money or cash as fee for items or providers.” Some states do have legal guidelines requiring companies to just accept money (tinyurl.com/states-cash).

•••

I learn “Cashing in on going cashless” with some amusement. A few weeks in the past, I used to be operating errands with my 7-year-old grandson. He requested for a few quarters to purchase sweet from a dispenser. I agreed. Later, he requested if I’d purchase him one thing from a close-by retailer. “This time, would you utilize actual cash, Grandpa?” he requested. “I am unsure what you imply,” I replied. “,” he stated, “the cash in your iPhone!”

Vince Therrien, Burnsville

•••

Do many individuals know that utilizing a card or an app provides as much as 5% to the price? Guess who pays this. For this reason many small busineses give a money low cost. I could also be paranoid, however I do not need my transactions tracked and my knowledge bought. Huge enterprise likes cashless, as most individuals spend extra. If you wish to use a card, achieve this, however do not take away my freedom to make use of money.

David Newville, Coon Rapids

CUSTOMER SERVICE

I’ve a modest proposal for chief executives of Comcast/Xfinity. It is perhaps helpful for senior execs at Xcel, CenturyLink, Verizon and different utility-like organizations. It additionally may apply to senior managers in metropolis, county and state authorities organizations.

Name your customer support line as soon as every week.

I would recommend doing it extra typically, however I notice you might be busy individuals. As soon as every week. Make the decision your self from a private telephone. Have an issue prepared to debate — a typical one or one thing a bit completely different. You may in all probability get ideas out of your current customer support recordsdata (if you will discover them).

You may wish to finances various minutes of your busy schedule — identical to your prospects must do. You might uncover every little thing is hunky-dory and get a heat glow of satisfaction as a result of every little thing is working as you have got deliberate.

For those who’re not happy, even after a number of makes an attempt to resolve your drawback, you possibly can fireplace the proxy firm you have employed to deal with buyer “service.” Or fireplace whoever (finally) solutions the telephone.

Nevertheless it’s a decent job market, and other people at that stage are laborious to switch. In case your name is irritating, why not fireplace your self? The job marketplace for C-level positions is extra sturdy.

Doug Wilhide, Minneapolis

THE COMICS

An Oct. 9 letter author (“Time’s up) seeks to cancel the sketch “Dilbert,” which pillories company, interpersonal and political foolishness of all stripes, as a result of, effectively, her political oxen are additionally being gored. That is an instance of a tragic and recurrent intuition by the left to purge and suppress imagined enemies. The identical individuals who get misty-eyed over the sins of McCarthyism two, happening three, generations in the past are those who’re decided to quash any departure from, even parody of, the brand new left-wing orthodoxy.

In the meantime, “Doonesbury” carries on, with some strips repeating from a long time in the past with none name for “off along with his head” from conservatives. Let hundreds of parodies and satires bloom, is my suggestion. The brand new McCarthyists on the left must be ashamed of themselves, and the Star Tribune should not give in (because it sadly did with the “Mallard Fillmore” strip) to the would-be hecklers’ veto.

Douglas P. Seaton, Edina