> (This has probably been explored in a Tom Clancy/Michael Crichton -type novel...)

This is the plot of Rainbow Six, where a scheming group of evil environmentalists plan to unleash a weaponized strain of Ebola on the world to wipe out 99.99% of the global population so that the ecosystems will survive. Other comically evil things the environmentalists do include experimenting on homeless people abducted from the street and provoking/funding acts of terror worldwide as part of some hazy cover up for their activities.

It all ends in tears for the environmentalists though, at the hands of an all-American red-blooded special forces hero and his multi-national above-the-law and above-Top-Secret counter-terrorism task force.

Not really Clancy's finest hour, IMO, but a good look into the conservative id.