Surprises and Un-Surprises from the Past Decade

Culled these "fun" stats from a recent issue of Time magazine and Harper's Index:

Size of polar ice cap in 2000: 2.7 million square miles
Size in 2010: 1.9 million square miles

Countries where gay marriage was legal in 2000: 0
Legal in 2010: 10 (Holland, Belgium, Spain, Canada, S. Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina)

U.S. Defense budget in 2001: $316 billion
In 2010: $693 billion

Brazil's per capita GDP in 2000: $3,700
In 2008: $8,536

The U.S. prison population in 2000: 1,391,261
In 2010: 1,612,071
(NOTE: The U.S. imprisons more people than any other country; more than 1 in 100 adults are behind bars)

China's investments in Africa in 2000: $1.6 billion
In 2009: $17 billion

Hectares of land growing opium in Afghanistan in 2000: 82,000
In 2010: 123,000

Cell phones in India in 2000: 2 million
In 2010: 545 million

Internet users in China in 2000: 22 million
In 2010: 420 million

Indonesia's CO2 emissions in 2000: 267 million metric tons
In 2008: 434 million metric tons
(NOTE: Indonesia is the world's 3rd largest emitter - in large part due to the effects of deforestation and the destruction of its carbon-rich peat lands)

Billionaires in the world in 2000: 306
In 2010: 1,011

Number of undernourished people in the world in 2000: 857 million
In 2010: 925 million

Money leaving Africa illegally in 2000: $13.1 billion
In 2010: $77.8 billion

Percentage of Americans who say government programs don't help their families: 54
Portion of American families that received federal benefits in the past two years: 7/10

% change in spending by independent political groups between the '06 and '10 mid-terms elections: +310
Portion of the funds in '10 that came from orgs not legally required to disclose their donors: 1/2
% of such groups that supported conservative candidates: 80

% of developing nations whose economies grew faster than the U.S. during the Bush years: 89
% that did during the Clinton years: 48