This scenario was envisioned twice in the last 20 years by two different authors.
Whitley Strieber (yes, the UFO nut) co-wrote an apocalyptic book about environmental collapse called "Nature's End" (1986). In the book, a world-reknowned "enviromental leader" suggested a suicide pill be given to everyone on Earth, with every tenth pill being a placebo.
The other author is Tom Clancy. In "Rainbow Six", a group of terroristic enviro-wackos develop a super-Ebola along with a vaccine that they give only to themselves. There are only a few of these people...but they want to kill the entire human population so their friends the animals can once more have free reign over the Earth.
(I love John Clark's solution, once they capture these wackos: He sets them free into the jungle they love, with the animals they adore...stark naked. Needless to say, it is implied that they do not survive.)
Also, if you look into the core beliefs of groups like PETA, ELF, and Earth First!, you will find that their eventual goal of human de-population is just the same as this insane professor.
Don't forget the James Bond movie "Moonraker". Bad example, I know, but it's the same story: Whack-job tries to rid earth of the "plague" of humanity while he and his merry band plan to wait out the destruction on a space station.
"Whitley Strieber (yes, the UFO nut) co-wrote an apocalyptic book about environmental collapse called "Nature's End" (1986). In the book, a world-reknowned "enviromental leader" suggested a suicide pill be given to everyone on Earth, with every tenth pill being a placebo."
I just wanted to alert FREEPERS first: I've got one of the placebo-laced pills. I'll be putting it up on Ebay, so bid high.
I prefer Michael Crichton's solution: introduce them to a tribe of hungry cannibals.