%0 Journal Article %T You defend what you feel: ¡®Presencing¡¯ nature as ¡®experiential knowing¡¯ %A Gioel Gioacchino %J Action Research %@ 1741-2617 %D 2019 %R 10.1177/1476750319829208 %X This article reflects on a youth-led action research process on climate change adaptation carried out in Cuba between 2013 and 2015. The research explored the question: ¡®How are Cuban youth engaging with climate change adaptation challenges and what can we learn from it?¡¯. The objectives of the research were to understand young people's attitudes towards climate change and environmental work while connecting a youth network in Cuba and encourage collaboration. This article contributes to PAR with a rich description of a research process in which the group of co-researchers was able to collectively shift their awareness of and personal relationship with nature. Proposing a conversation between Heron and Reason's extended epistemology (1997) and Scharmer's TheoryU (2016, 2018), I argue that experiential knowledge in climate change and environmental work looks like entering an intimate state of co-presencing with the aliveness of the earth. Second of all, the research contributes to the literature on youth participation highlighting that in Cuba there is a gap between the political will and attention towards climate change adaptation, which is remarkable, and young people's ability to meaningfully take leadership in such efforts %K Youth-led PAR %K TheoryU %K Cuba %K climate change adaptation %K extended epistemology %U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1476750319829208