Fascinating report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on world disasters. Apparently, 2012 counts as one of the less stressful years for world disasters, given the absence of major disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008 or the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The report focuses on crowdsourcing, data analytics and crisis mapping in disaster response, management and preparedness. Examples are drawn from the 2011 Japanese earthquake, drought monitoring in sub-Saharan Africa, the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident and the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Particularly interesting is the use of satellite imagery to help people evacuate the north-east coast of the US when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012. For more on the activation of satellite data in disaster management, see http://www.disasterscharter.org/home