in a letter to bannon former president trump writes, i watched how you and others have been treated spending vast amounts of money on legal fees. i will waive executive privilege for you. the committee says today it s open to bannon s testimony as long as it s under oath. bannon s potential testimony would come on the heels of testimony from another major witness. former trump white house counsel pat cipollone, part of his eight-hour closed door interview will be this week. context and nuance is important when it comes to steve bannon. the letter is essentially the equivalent of me telling you that i m waiving my executive privilege for you to talk to our bosses tomorrow in our morning meetings. what does what bannon and trump are doing here actually mean? well, look, if he actually testifies, let s say he actually goes in and does it for real that would be huge. we re so far away from that still. he basically gave bannon the cover so that he, bannon, could go to the commit
this is where the fire is endangering. we know there are hundreds of fire personnel fighting from the air, from the ground, this fire is just a couple of miles away from those historic sequoias, the world s largest trees. in this park it has the largest grove of the giant sequoias, more than 500 of them are housed there, and they ve set up the sprinkler system to help protect some of these trees. the grizzly giant, as i heard you talk about today, the second largest sequoia in the park so they re doing all that they can to protect the park from this wildfire and these historic wildfires. it is not just yosemite. this issue of climate change and the impact of climate change at these national parks is an issue across the united states. more than 70% of the 423 national parks are in danger of
over time these very low-lying areas that were part of the important trails that allowed people to escape will be lost in some places. reporter: more than 70% are at high risk from the effects of climate change. from sea level rise and flooding to extreme temperatures, drought and wildfires. historic flooding last month forced it to shut down more than a week. the home of the world s largest trees wildfires have burned large swaths of the giant sequoia groves. wildfires and extreme heat have forced california s yosemite national park to close several times in recent years. meanwhile glacier national park in montana is rapidly losing its namesake feature.
thank you. coming up, a wildfire in one of the nation s most iconic national parks has doubled in size in a day. it s now within miles of y yosemite s sequoia trees. e an expedia member, you can instantly start saving on your travels. so you can go and see all those, lovely, lemony, lemons. and never wonder if you got a good deal. because you did.
this is in 1910 versus 2021. these are places that tell critical stories of our history and people and culture and these places will not be able to withstand these repeat assaults. reporter: more frequent, more intense natural disasters will transform national parkland skaps. and there s the economic loss. in 2021 alone our national parks saw over 297 million visitors. they generated over 42.5 billion dollars. reporter: back on maryland s eastern shore the national park service says it has teamed up with the army corps of engineers to fight the growing impacts of growing climate change. and this issue of climate change and national parks is already on the radar for some members of congress. we had a group come back from yosemite national park.