Environmental Utilitarianism?

I decided when I sat down to write, to pick a topic and put a bit of effort into understanding it in light of of utilitarianism. Within twenty seconds (literally) I'd looked at my shirt, of cotton (which the growing methods can be quite harmful to the environment) and voila! 

How does the environment relate to utilitarianism? Unlike animals the planet is not considered to be alive, by science, so it cannot feel pain. Does the damage to the environment then not matter, since it cannot feel anything? 

Clearly this has some similarities to baby Theresa. Baby Theresa could not feel any pain. Yet damage to her caused emotional pain in others. Damage to her would also prevent happiness in other babies, thus continuing their pain. 

The planet is a very similar case. While damaging the planet does not cause it pain, it does cause humans and animals alike pain in the long-term. Leveling a forest and putting homes and shopping malls in decreases the amount of oxygen in the air---less trees to deal with the carbon dioxide living animals breathe out. It may not hurt a human in the short term to level a forest, but in the long term it does! 

Damaging the environment doesn't just affect the person who acted against the planet. It actually affects every last creature on this planet, from bacteria to humans, from dogs to cats, from mollusks to cnidarians, from the birds in the sky to the deepest-dwelling oceanic creatures, those albinos of the deep. 

Damaging the planet counts against every one of us. It might take more than three strikes to destroy our planet (hmm, let's count---Industrial revolution, cars, textile factories, toxic waste, landfills...oops we're waaaay past three) but the science is telling us that we just may be headed that direction, faster than we'd like to admit. 

The principle of utility is clearly suggesting something: it may increase our happiness if we took a look at how our actions affect our planet, and thus us.