How can historians use the term environment as an analytical tool? That was one of the questions of the opening paper of the first workshop of the Histories of Environmental Change research network presented by Paul Warde on 5 November 2010 at Cambridge. The paper entitle The environment: an out there idea? explored the origins and changing meaning of ‘environment’ and how it developed its modern ecological meaning only very recently. Warde suggests that the word environment is molded by people’s oranisational outlook of the world and that this is a useful tool for historians for analyzing what is meant with environmental and the environment. Music credits: Slither Away by sunbyrn, Aerofonia by Mario Mattioli. Available from ccmixter.org.