A couple of things, it is very true that scientists are raking it in from both sides and so a lot of the research probably is bias'd one way or the other. But I know for a fact that there is a lot of research being done that isn't along the lines of "the globe is getting hotter, we're all going to die! OMG!" and a lot of it involves figuring out the answers to some of the things you've mentioned.
That's good. With issues like this, I get to a point where I stop caring for the sole reason that I don't feel like I can believe anybody who's involved, so I just settle on being more or less uncertain. I don't do a lot of reading about this, though, so others probably know more than me.
Cattle farming produces a different greenhouse gas(in this case methane). They've but a fair amount of research into figuring out just how much cows fart from what I understand, sounds like fun stuff. AFAIK, and I could be wrong, but I don't think the amount of the emissions from this cause are necessarily higher infact, I suspect they're a lot lower. Its just a case of methane is much better at causing warming than something like CO2.
According to the article I linked, livestock produce 9 percent of CO
2, 37 percent of methane, and 65 percent of nitrous oxide. I have no idea how each of those contribute to the greenhouse effect, though.
The other thing is that those consequences(which you probably already know, you seem to have done your homework) would likely only become visible after many generations. A lot of people were screaming "OMG GLOBAL WARMING!" after the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active on record. Yet the 2006 season was more towards the opposite end of the spectrum.. A single season or event can't verify something like global warming.
Research is probably the wrong word. I've heard and read a little about it, but not really researched. In any case, I'm always suspicious of "proof" like a single harsh season. I'd be interested if you could point us to some neutral and non-shockist sources.