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When asked to pinpoint Iraq on a map, 63% of young Americans can't do it. 20% place Sudan in Asia. And just 19% even own a map of the world. Woe to our landlocked children! Will they never dream of exotic travel and far off places? In an effort to change those statistics, National Geographic and a host of partners have launched a campaign to help kids fall in love with the Earth's giant promise (and help parents and teachers encourage the romance). My Wonderful World, the project's companion site, offers polls and quizzes and printable maps. It includes an online atlas called the "MapMachine." It blogs about events like the World Geography Championships. But mostly, it serves as an awesome jumping-off point for the Web's treasure trove of global knowledge, including Google Earth, Smithsonian Global Sound, and Virtual Tourism. Bon voyage!

If the Earth had lungs, an x-ray of them would resemble that of a chronic smoker. Using data from the World Factbook and the United Nations, this site by designer David Bleja elegantly contrasts the globe's real-time dioxide emission levels with each country's birth and death rates. A deep red color lights up to show countries currently emitting 1,000 tones of C0₂. All the usual industrial nations are there, such as the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, India, and much of Western Europe. Small golden suns highlight a recent birth, while brown circles note a death. In the left corner, you'll see a tally of how many humans have come into the world and how many have left it since you've been watching, as well as how much C0₂ has escaped into the atmosphere. The data may not be pretty, but the presentation is stylish and smart. And it may make you think before you take another puff from that tailpipe.

This site from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration dares to go where no site has gone before. With a wealth of online goodies that will amaze even grizzled mariners of the Web, it tracks, records, photographs, and thrills to a fleet of deep sea expeditions. There's so much to talk about that it's almost painful to narrow it down. But we accepted the task, and came up with these recommendations of where to begin...

1. Submarine Ring of Fire: This recently accomplished mission charted the underwater volcanoes of the Mariana Arc. Don't miss the jaw-dropping video, especially of sulfur chimneys, "huge bushes" of tubeworms, and the fantastic eruption of the Brimstone Pit.

    

2. The Sound in the Sea gallery: A collection of audio files that includes the eerie, fluttering hum of the blue whale and the reverberations of a massive underwater earthquake.