Photographic Duo Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli Document the Youth Protesting for a Safer Planet

photographs by Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli

Silent Springs zooms in on the young activists confronting climate change through civil disobedience, solidarity, and collective action.

In their new book Silent Springs, Italian photographic duo Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli take the audience behind the scenes of some of Europe’s most prominent youth climate justice movements, displaying the discipline and design shaping a generation’s activism. Presented as a contemporary manifesto, the book follows nonviolent direct action as young climate activists organize across borders in the face of accelerating ecological collapse and tightening state repression. From France to Germany to Italy, the project maps a shared urgency shaped by parallel crises and collective resistance.

The Neurath Power Station, a lignite-fired power plant owned by RWE in Germany. Lignite, or ‘brown coal’, is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel; in 2019, this site was identified as the second-largest single carbon dioxide emitter in the European Union.
A young activist stands guard at a makeshift checkpoint at the entrance to the occupied village of Lützerath, Germany.

Youth-led groups including Extinction Rebellion, Ende Gelände, Code Rouge, Last Generation, and Soulèvements de la Terre build road blockades, occupy campuses, enter coal mines, and establish makeshift camps in defense of a shared goal: safeguarding the planet for future generations. Borzoni and Rorandelli follow these actions, from planning and encampment through police confrontation and dispersal, pairing photographs with language that breaks down the tactics and ethical frameworks of climate action and shows how resistance is sustained and justified from within.

A group of environmental activists gather in Vienna, Austria, occupying the railway terminal of the Austrian energy company OMV.
An activist-built barricade seals off one of the access points to the village of Lützerath, Germany.

Against a backdrop of rising temperatures and social apathy, Silent Springs captures the scale of mass mobilization alongside the lived reality of those involved, examining the fears and hopes that bind young activists together. What emerges is a record of young people choosing to stand their ground with their bodies and their voices, insisting on a future that institutions have failed to protect.

Police forces gather in the center of La Rochelle, France, during a demonstration by Les Soulèvements de la Terre against the environmental impact of the agribusiness industry.

Silent Springs by Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli is published by Loose Joints and available for purchase here.


© Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli 2026 courtesy Loose Joints



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Photographic Duo Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli Document the Youth Protesting for a Safer Planet

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Photographic Duo Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli Document the Youth Protesting for a Safer Planet

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