The
terms are not synonymous!
Global warming refers to the accumulation of heat due to an energy imbalance. The imbalance is due to increasing levels of greenhouse gases, and the most important greenhouse gas is CO2 (longest atmospheric lifetime and most plentiful) from the burning of fossil fuels.
Climate Change refers to the climatic response to increased heat. Increased severity of droughts, floods, and heat waves are examples of climate change.
You fall into a sort of Atlantic-centric trap. The Northern Atlantic is but one basin where tropic cyclones occur, but there are basins throughout the Pacific and Indian oceans. Having said that,
there is no indication of an increase in ACE (accumulated cyclonic energy) on a global scale.
There is also low confidence in the idea that increased oceanic heat content would lead to an increase in the frequency of tropical cyclones, as there are other factors required for the development of tropical cyclones (such as anti-cyclonic flow aloft). Some of the
latest trends in modeling indicate an increase in intensity of the strongest cyclones, but a decrease in the frequency of cyclones.
Sea-level is rising due mostly to thermal expansion of water, melting of land ice, and subsidence. There are indications that ice-sheets,
specifically Greenland and
Western Antarctica, are far less stable than once thought. Greenland alone contains enough water to raise sea level by 21 feet if the entire sheet were to melt.
I fail to understand this argument. Yes, climate has changed over the course of the last 4.54B years, but what does that have to do with suggesting that humans can't be causing it now? Does the fact that lung cancer existed before cigarettes make it hypocritical to suggest that smoking tobacco leads to lung cancer? Forest fires existed long before humans, so is it hypocritical to suggest that a poorly buried camp fire led to a conflagration? If you would like to look into the paleoclimate research regarding climate change and CO2, Dr. Richard Alley provides both
this, and
this.
As far as policy required to address this issue, I prefer a carbon tax, but I'm open to various ideas as long as the objective of stopping the burning of fossil fuels is met.