Narcissists, my ass. Bloggers are the new social movement, the swelling wave of social change, the next generation of activist-artists who put their figurative money where their literal keyboards are.

And if you've ever had any doubt about this, you need only look at BlogHer's collaboration with Global Giving, or BlogHers Act, or BlogHers Act Canada (which played a role in getting the Canadian government to label bisphenol-A toxic, hurrah hurrah!).

You need only look at the overwhelming Earth-love and eco-commitment that spilled out of so, so many computer screens this month in support of Earth Month and Earth Day.

I've said in this space before that my own motivations for being an eco-mom are largely selfish. I want my environment to be healthy so that I can be healthy, so that my kids - born and unborn - can be healthy, so that we don't have to worry about what might cause cancer or birth defects or whatever. But I believe this to be good selfishness, the best selfishness, and I want nothing more than for my children learn how to be selfish in exactly the same way. Which is why, although I think that blogging about the effects of environmental degradation on, say, maternal health is critically important, I think that blogging about ways and means of teaching our children to be environmental egoists - to love the environment as if it were their very own, to want to protect that environment because that environment is all about them them them, their world, their future - is even more important.

Which is why I think that we should celebrate, really celebrate, all of the efforts that bloggers have been making this month to spread their wisdom about greening the whole family - and greening our kids. Like Motherbumper, who made a strong argument that squirrel-chasing can be a powerful incentive for a toddler to get earthy. And The Full Mommy group review blog, which devoted this week to reviewing products that are both eco-friendly and teach environmental awareness to kids. And BlogHer's own Dana, who wrote an amazing article full of tips for getting the whole family to get green. As did Mir, too, in these very pages. And we should especially applaud those bloggers who've actually been actively getting kids involved, offline as well as on, like Greeblemonkey's Kid Art Auction for Earth Day, which combined kid's art efforts with fundraising. And holla to the kids - THE KIDS - that BlogHer CE Rita caught being green and rounded up here. (You might have caught your own kids being green - did you participate in Beth's Green Kids Video Challenge?)

BlogHers Act Canada, as I noted earlier this month, has devoted the month of April to the challenge of greening our kids. You can your kids involved in that challenge, right now, by getting them active in the garden and submitting photos of that activity to the BlogHers ACT Canada Earth Day Kids Gardening Photo Contest! (Better? Get your kids to take the picture! Bring on the kids' eco-art!)

Let's keep up the momentum here as Earth Month continues. Let's be selfish in our determination to make the world a healthier place for ourselves and our children, and let's be determined in encouraging that selfishness - the kind of selfishness that makes the virtues of selflessness (the commons belongs to all of us! so be good to it!) so totally obvious - in our kids.