The joke in the refrigeration industry is that "it's not bad for the environment until DuPont's patent expires".

Now obviously they were bad for the environment all along, but I don't think it's a coincidence that nothing was done about CFCs until the 3rd world got good at making them cheap.

The joke is getting a little out of date though since the new stuff is hydrocarbons and CO2 (and you can't patent those).