I think the difference between acidity due to sulfur dioxide and CO2 is twofold.
Sulfur dioxide is reactive and gets rapidly cleared in the environment. Sulfur dioxide + H2O -> sulfuric acid -> acidic rain -> + just about any metallic element -> sulfate[1]. So a hang time of 'years' vs CO2 hang time of thousands of years.
Second the amount of CO2 we're releasing is probably two orders larger than the amount of sulfur dioxide we were releasing back in the 70's. Since raw coal and petroleum contains a fractional percentage of sulfur it stands to reason the CO2 produced is probably 100 larger than SO2.