Yet there seems to be little public awareness of this.  The public
seems view global warming as a problem that can be dealt with later,
but this might not be true.

"Greenpeace International polled 400 climate scientists during
December 1991 and January '92. The sample included all scientists
involved in the 1990 study of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, and others who have published on issues relevant to climate
change in `Science' or `Nature' during 1991. Scientists were asked
whether they thought there would be a point of no return at some time
in the future, if emissions continued at their present rate. By the
end of January 1992, 113 had replied, in the following way: probably -
15 (13%), possibly - 36 (32%), probably not - 53 (47%). In other
words, 45% believe the runaway greenhouse effect to be possible. "

http://archive.greenpeace.org/climate/database/records/zgpz0638.html

"Runaway global warming" (RGW) is the best term I have found for this
(based on googling).   Is there a better term?

What is the status of RGW in the scientific community these days?  It
is frige alarmist or mainstream?

Is there any research that might sort out RGW, determine if its a real
probability, put a probability on it?