The planet's surface did not grow. Of the roughly 510 million km² of Earth's surface only 149 million km² is land; about 130 million of that is ice-free today.

What changed is what people do with that fixed area. Ten thousand years ago the land people used was a small part of a largely wild surface. With farming, forests were cleared, soil was cropped, and pasture was made for animals. As cities grew, roads, buildings and infrastructure transformed the land permanently.

Today about 42% of ice-free land is linked to some form of human use. The largest share is pasture and rangeland; then cropland, forests, and settlement with infrastructure.