I'm not questioning the sad state of scientific literacy, then or now, but it really wouldn't have been all that difficult for the news media to properly explain the issue.

I graduated high school the year before that article was published.

While in high school, I wrote reports on the "greenhouse effect". I later found myself helping my parents and others grasp the actual effects of "global warming." Poles heating faster than the tropics. Shifting weather patterns that would cause some regions to at least temporarily see a period of cooling, etc.

If I could do it, getting it right was certainly within the capabilities of university trained journalists.