Why is 'acid rain' a misleading term?

Answer 1

One school of thought on "acid rain" is that it just "falls from the sky" and, as such, is a natural phenomenon. Perhaps it could be passed off as something other than what it is: the direct result of the emission of large quantities of sulfur into the atmosphere by the burning of sulfurous coal, hydrocarbon petrochemicals and fuels that contain sulfur or by some other industrial process that results in the release into air of great amounts of sulfur. The sulfur then combines with water vapor to make sulfuric acid and the stuff precipitates out in rain.

"Any entity that was engaged in an enterprise that released into the air large amounts of sulfur would initially be loathe to take any remedial action to stop or otherwise limit emissions of sulfur. The business would immediately see that taking any action would invariably result in a reduction of their profits. Any company would, from the outset, almost certainly deny any responsibility for the effects of acid rain. After all, how can the sulfur atom in a molecule of sulfuric acid be traced back to the point of origin of that sulfur atom?" That was the general thinking when the disfiguration of large tracts of land and the resultant negative effects on wildlife were first reported. When a mechanism for the blight was sought, acid rain due to sulfur emission was offered as a cause. Imagine the reaction of industries that produced large sulfur emissions!

Though there are contributions from nitrogen to acid rain, it remains due largely to the emission of sulfur into the air by the combustion of fossil fuel containing sulfur.

A link to the Wikipedia article on acid rain is provided.

The only misleading part of "acid rain" would be that it involves only rain. All precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, hail fog) can have the depressed pH from the sulfur and nitrogen compounds present. A more proper label would be "acid precipitation"