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On Sunday, when Ryan and Jamie Pleune finished their 350-mile pilgrimage to raise awareness of climate change, fog had so mingled with the inversion that you couldn't see much more than about 50 feet. Worse, you could not only smell but taste the air.

Far different from the Pluenes' long walk through eastern Utah, where they descended Desolation Canyon, traversed part of Canyonlands and looped through Grand Gulch in the Cedar Mesa. That journey was inspired by a movement to designate the number 350 as the target for maximum safe amount of parts per million (ppms) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Scientific websites, Ryan said, have recorded up to 392 ppm in parts of the United States.

But it also was a homecoming for the couple, who moved back to Utah after spending two years in Washington, D.C. — Jamie as an environmental attorney and Ryan, a former teacher, working for a couple of environmental nonprofits.

There, they got involved with a website called http://www.350.org, which bills itself as an international campaign to "unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis."

But for the Pleunes, it's much more personal than that, and they undertook their long walk to figure out what they could do about it.

The idea, Jamie said, "was almost like the initial process of putting thoughts into action. For me, personally, climate change is an issue that just feels totally hopeless and despairing. I really wanted to go back and be in the wilderness areas, to sort of look for hope. That was the beginning of the journey."

Ryan, who had taught classes on earth systems and biology at East High School and City Academy, was searching too — for hope, he says, and "to find a way to apply my skills and my soul's work."

He's working on a master's degree in ecological teaching and learning at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and the long walk — dubbed "Pilgrimage for Hope" — will form the bones of his thesis.

They are certainly aware of the disdain some Utah political conservatives have for the mere notion of climate change. Still, their awakening activism, even hope, fuels their desire to help generate awareness and foster change through the scientific process.

"One thing I'm sensing is that climate change improperly has been placed in this political box when it's not a political issue," said Jamie, who's looking for a job in environmental law. "Caring about climate change is no more political than saving for your kids' college education. It's just caring for the future."

As for their nascent activism, they quote Wendell Berry, the Kentucky writer, academic and farmer: "It may be that when we finally no longer know what to do, we've come to our work. When we finally no longer know where to go, we've found our journey."

The Pleunes are both 33, at least until Friday, when Jamie turns 34. They live in a rustic house on Quince Street in Salt Lake City's Marmalade district, kept company by a furry little dog named Ralph.

That walk on Sunday took them from the state Capitol to Beck Street and on to the oil refineries in the north end of the city. With them were a pregnant woman and a couple with little kids; all wondered if the air was even remotely safe enough to be walking in.

"It's depressing to have to ask that question," Ryan said.

But they're willing to ask, and to find others who believe that activism is the only way to stimulate knowledge and action. On Thursday, they're giving a presentation on their walk and work at 7 p.m. in the auditorium at the Main Library, 210 E. 400 South.

Being in public, Jamie said, is uncomfortable. But at some point, she added, "there's a moral limit that you can reach, and say, 'I'm not willing to stay silent any longer. I'm not going to wring my hands anymore. I'm ready to roll up my sleeves.' "

Peg McEntee is a columnist. Reach her at pegmcentee@sltrib.com.